statement

 Much of my practice involves trying to rewrite my personal story in which I have lived for the last twenty-four years. So much of my life, and my life’s work, has been spent trying to figure out why the femininity of a man is something to be laughed at or scolded. I wondered why my actions as a young feminine boy were not nurtured and encouraged in any aspect or degree at all.    Today I use paint as a way to create a revision. I am able to visually show what my life could have been, and more importantly, what it will be going forward, had the ‘heteronormative vision’ society put upon my me and my fellow LGBTQ+ community. My past deprived me of the joy and the human right to be exactly who and what I am. Today, there is more opportunity for gender-nonconforming expression. My art provides me a place to express these concepts. I prefer it to be feminine and delicate while showing the fight against the hetero normative standards that is our society. In order to break through the stress that comes from society’s heteronormativity, I have to disrupt these norms through my work. I do this by understanding the key points between the two genders and then purposely mix them up, putting aspects of one gender to the other.