Artist Statement

This series of prints focuses on my experiences as a transgender person, largely through printmaking and charcoal drawing. In some of the artwork, nature is used as a metaphor for transition, exploring the subject matter of lionesses that grow manes, comparing myself to them. Additionally, other artworks explore the physical changes that I am experiencing during my medical transition. In this political climate, it is important to me that I am loud about who I am. I make my art to show that I exist. 

One of my motivations as an artist is to contest the phrase “it’s not natural”, which is often used to demean and dismiss transgender people, along with the queer community as a whole. There are many instances in nature that can be equated to physical transition in humans. An example of this is the lionesses that grow manes and begin to act more like male lions. There is a strong connection between this and transmasculine people.  

As my artwork evolved, it became important for me to depict my physical transition and the changes that were recorded at milestones. I was scared, didn’t know what would happen. Physical transition is different for everyone who goes through it, so there wasn’t a way to know for sure how mine would go. It has been exciting to watch these changes and has inspired a new direction of artwork documenting changes in my body like hair growth and the emotional changes that come with it.  

It's important to me that I am vocal about my identity. For some transgender people, going unnoticed is the goal, and that is what is good for them. I want to be known and be vulnerable. It’s my responsibility to stay visible, to not disappear like so many people seem to want. I continue to remind myself of all the good that has come from not taking the easy route through my artmaking.