Archive: Artwork
May 2019
Before my senior year of high school, I didn’t really know that I could pursue art professionally. Most of my sketchbook up to that point was just drawings of eyes and other things that were aesthetically pleasing to me, not imbued with much meaning or weight. I was, instead, hyper-focused on how I could translate a drawing into cohesive image through value and mark.
August 2020
This was one of my first forays into color through the use of colored pencil. Taking inspiration from CJ Hendry’s photorealistic paint blob drawing, I attempted to similarly translate an image into a drawing that looked like an image. At this point, the only art I saw was online and that mainly consisted of photorealistic – which blew my mind and made me want to do it myself.
September 2021
In a series of collages for a freshman year class, I explored various themes, one being the socially constructed idea of gender. It deals with the question “nature or nurture” – are we shaped by our genetics or environment? Is gender somehow imbedded in our DNA or learned through social conditioning?
September 2021
In a subsequent collage, I continued with similar themes, this time thinking about the socially constructed idea of masculinity. Although I didn’t know it at the time, these topics would continue to be present in my work.
December 2021
This is a colored pencil drawing I made for a class in my freshman year of college. It was the first time I ever made a piece related to being transgender, shortly after I started Testosterone in October of that year. It sparked my interest in making work about being trans and would be the impetus for most of my work after this point.
March 2022
This is a plaster mold I made for another freshman year class. Increasingly interested in making work about being transgender, I decided to make this piece a declarative statement on my body and the new-found autonomy I had over it. I also wanted to confront people’s preconceived notions about trans individuals and their bodies, present in the text across the plaster.
April 2022
This was my final piece in my life drawing class. Per the assignment, it was a 6x6 foot drawing in charcoal focused on the body. I took this as a chance to explore my experiences inhabiting a trans body – especially in relation to my sexuality. I interspersed drawings of different body parts with screenshots of messages I’ve gotten from men about my body.
April 2022
Another piece for the same class, I took an assignment about alternative methods of mark-making as an opportunity to continue speaking about being trans. I carved into linoleum and attached them to wood, which I tied to the bottom of my shoes.
August 2022
Almost a year on hormones at this point, I began drawing from my own reference photos as a way to investigate and document my changing body. This painting was also my first time using gouache paint (which I didn’t end up enjoying). However, it was important for me to continue exploring new materials with these new ideas to see what was most effective.
August 2022
This was one of my first assignments for my Drawing major class. Drawn from observation in charcoal, this piece spoke about my deep dissatisfaction with and dysphoria around my chest, something that weighed heavily on me at the time.
September 2022
Another piece from my Drawing class, this ballpoint pen drawing allowed me to continue exploring this self-documentation in different mediums and ways, which would help me figure out what was most effective in terms of style, rendering, medium, and other formal elements.
September 2022
This chalk pastel drawing was a moment for me where I wanted to evoke a reaction from my audience. This was just another way for me to explore different topics and mediums, which was the goal of sophomore year. This piece didn’t end up informing any future work, but it was a nice way to experiment.
October 2022
February 2023
This is a zine I made in a sophomore year Reproducibility class. At this point, more and more legislation targeting trans people started to snowball, so I decided to make a zine outlining the increasing legislative attacks toward trans people as a way to bring attention to it from a trans perspective.
February 2023
In an assignment focused on self-portraiture, I decided to depict the objects I interacted with on daily basis. This silverpoint drawing was the first time I ever considered that objects could stand in for the individual and tell a more intimate story than a portrait ever could. Although I didn’t continue this thread at the time, it would help me later down the road.
April 2023
April 2023
This large acrylic painting was part of my final for my sophomore spring semester in painting. I wanted to depict my transformed body in a celebratory manner, so I experimented with the color palette. This painting would not immediately spawn any new direction in my work, but it did allow me to look at scale in a new way.
April 2023
These watercolor paintings were my final for my sophomore year in drawing. They depict needles going through the skin (piercing play). Although an interesting subject, I was more intrigued by the soft, almost skin-like effect the paper had when activated by the medium, and how this could impact the viewer.
October 2023
At this point, I was a little lost in terms of drawing and what I could use it for. The subject matter was all over the place for me. However, this was the first time I really scaled down my drawings in terms of size and focusing on the effects of light and shadow I could achieve with graphite. This would inform my later drawings.
November 2023
In my junior year of painting, I wanted to experiment with themes in my work. Continuing to use my own photos as reference, I explored different poses and the associations with that. In this painting, the pose and skirt reference a pin up, an overly posed moment of sexuality that ended up not serving me in the long run.
January 2024
These are small oil paintings I made on 4x4 ceramic tiles. As a way to give myself a break from some more serious subject matter, I decided to make these quick little paintings of silly animals. It helped me further understand different painting techniques and loosen up in terms of rendering.