Mess Artist Statement

I have found myself trapped in a binary for my entire life. Day-to-day, even as a child,
I was told that the things I was doing were “wrong” because I am a boy. I cannot like makeup
because I am a boy. I cannot play with dolls because I am a boy. I cannot seek creative self-expression
because I am a boy, and all that stuff is for girls. All the things that I loved and enjoyed were for girls,
and as a boy I cannot like them even though they make me happy.

As a young boy, I was different. I knew that. I come from a family that is dominated by men,
and in that atmosphere I stick out like a sore thumb. In that environment I had no one but myself to
tell me that what makes me different is what makes me beautiful, and that is what my work focuses on.
It is inherently bold in its formal art qualities such as line quality and color, but deeper than that it is
bold in its content. Central on the drag community and queer lifestyle, my drawings radiate an
opulence that can only be found through self-love. The beauty of portraiture captures the
individual aesthetic and ego that every queer person can relate to as people who also live
in this dichotomous world. The figures that I draw contain not only beauty and radiate opulence,
but they also wear their pain on their sleeves. They are raw. They are beautiful. They are present.
They are tortured. They are worthy of being seen and heard.