Painting is how I honor and bask in the joy that beautiful things bring me. It is a way to share the things that tickle my sense of aesthetics. That may seem frivolous to those who look for a political statement and social justice in art. However, as an openly queer woman working in the institution of higher education in the state of Florida, my daily experience is a navigation of the systems patriarchy and politics. Painting is a space for me to dive into the joy I find in color and dance with light and shadow. Like Oscar Wilde, I believe that if the art is not good for the artist themself, it’s not good for anyone else. With a deceptively simple painting, I can bring a moment of peaceful appreciation to my viewers, hopefully activate their imaginations. To create and share beautiful whimsy in a world filled with ugliness and fear is my revolutionary act.

This oil painting on wood panel is a self-portrait in an illustrative realism style. It is a study of some adjectives that have been poured on me throughout my life. Sometimes they are used with kindness and awe, other times with cruelty or derision. As I approach 40, I recognize that these words have no inherent value. I have value, they are merely descriptors. These words need not other me, they can connect me to found family and cultural identity. Instead of drowning under the weight of connotation, I shall let them nourish me like rain does a flower. Or in the words of trans-drag-comedian Jinkx Monsoon, just let them slide off me “Like water off a duck’s back.”