beyond the binary
As an artist with a passion for portraiture, I am continually fascinated by how a subject’s personality, ideas, beliefs and history manifest in the way they present themselves to the world. For myself, as a queer artist who identifies as female, I am particularly interested in exploring the phenomenon of gender fluidity through the lens of a portrait artist. While ideas about gender primarily manifest in one’s inner world through thoughts, dreams, and self-perception, another essential part of gender definition lies in how one chooses to appear to the outside world. I am interested in exploring the intersection of these inner and outer worlds by combining the visual imagery of portraiture with the narrative power of personal stories.
The paintings you’ll see here are the beginning of a project called Beyond the Binary, which is a portrait series I’ve created to explore these topics. Each piece in the series depicts a creative individual who identifies outside of the traditional gender binary in their own way, with a narrative of their perception and experience about gender identity incorporated into the painting as text. I begin each portrait with a series of interviews and discussions on the topic of gender fluidity, along with a variety of preliminary sketches and photos to create references that reflect the most organic approach to the portrait. Next, I curate and incorporate excerpts from interviews into the background using image transfer, and finally I add the portrait to the piece using oil paint. Each step involves close collaboration with the subject to ensure the communications are an authentic reflection of their experiences.
I’m tremendously grateful to the artists and performers who have been courageous enough to share their stories in my portrait series, and I feel privileged to be able to collaborate with each of them and learn about each person’s journey. I believe that sharing our stories is the best way for us to build communication and understanding, and I hope that my project will in some way help us to create more connection and support in our community.
