Artist Statement 

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My collages explore and express my queer perspective and aesthetic by freeing men in vintage magazines from pages on the fringes of society so I can reposition them as art. I see these men as a lineage of mine who risked danger and ridicule to reveal a vulnerable part of themselves very publicly, and whose bravery we still have to fiercely defend as queer people and rights are threatened daily by political regimes across the world. Though many may not see us this way, queer people are as natural and normal as floating clouds and glittering crystals. 

I cut from a variety of sources as I seek to create or release tension through image combinations. I pull photographs from vintage muscle, science and art magazines, and I glean materials like cardboard from everyday life to lend texture and dimension to the shapes of my thoughts and feelings. Most recently, I’ve integrated satellite imagery and large-scale images of natural elements like crystals for Naturalia’s larger collages. 

My hand-cut stencils are of models in vintage gay media whose forms I then fill and surround to create moods and complexity they were not afforded in their original media appearances.

Some stencils are conspicuous, others coquettish, others macho, and others reminiscent of classical art, but all lend shape to my overall collage aesthetic.

My most recent stencils are quadruple the size of my previous largest stencils thanks to vintage centerfolds whose forms I meticulously traced on acetate sheets before cutting them with razor knives to precisely maintain the subtlety in the bodies’ shapes. 

I see this work as honoring queer ancestors I never got to meet, keeping them alive and celebrating the very thing others despised: the trait they and I share.