Leaf Green Breathing

Straddling the line between abstraction and representation I’m focusing on nature, a subject matter with a long history in queer art. While trees and bears are the face of my paintings, my thesis is an exploration of a queer DNA in art I’ve been slowly happening upon. This DNA is not something that can easily be translated to any written or spoken language. Humor, awkwardness, resistance, deconstruction, and abstraction are descriptions that only scratch the surface of what queer art is. There’s an unspoken language in queer art that I find myself naturally putting to use in my own work. Without even actively thinking about queerness my first ever real influence on my paintings was Katherine Bradford, a queer figurative artist who expanded my approach to painting figures and to my touch in general. Since then my catalogue of queer artists has evolved along with my understanding of queer art and my place in queer art. 

Leaf Green Breathing is a reference to my favorite queer poet, Mary Oliver, someone who has come as close as possible to putting queer art to the English language. Her words have been a rope I can hold on to to help guide me through my exploration.