My paintings focus on themes of queerness and femininity. My experiences of sapphic yearning, sexuality and emotional pain as a queer woman heavily influences my work. Often I paint the nude female form, sometimes incorporating a second female figure interacting in some way. I am capturing the intimate moments between romantic partners to celebrate the authentic love present between LGBTQ couples. In our culture, sex and more specifically queer sex is seen as “taboo.” I dive into this idea of discomfort by confronting it head on with the viewer. My paintings are a direct attempt to destigmatize imagery of queer sex. 

I paint with a vibrant color palette, often using a lot of pink and purple. Pink has a historical significance to the work. Along with the use of intentional color, I add the textural element of hand embroidery. When a painting is finished, I’ll start stitching directly into the canvas in relation to the figure. Since the stitching is so time consuming, this transforms into a meditative process. The embroidery is used to represent hair, fabric, writing or sometimes it is used as a symbol for ecstasy. A lot of fiber art is historically associated with women’s work, which I like to examine from a feminist view with these ideas of domesticity. Growing up with my mother always knitting and making macrame projects, I became fascinated with the world of fiber art. As an artist, I was always frustrated with the notion of not being allowed to touch paintings, so I introduced embroidery onto the canvas in order to invite the audience to experience my artistic practice by touching the thread.

CONTENT WARNING FOR NUDITY