My art practice seeks to affirm, heal, and honor my queer identity, particularly my inner queer teenager. I came of age in the ’90s and early ’00s, when LGBTQ+ people were beginning to find limited acceptance in U.S. society, but homophobia was still socially acceptable and legal. Living in Midwest suburbia, I hid my sexual identity.

Now based in Chicago, I depict an alternative life in which I did not have to hide who I was in my teenage years. For me, the process of drawing does the deep work of internal healing and eradicating internalized queerphobia through imagination and beauty. Favoring oil pastels, which I build up and layer with a heavy hand, I depict new memories with a hint of fantasy — like attending school dances with people of any gender — and unpack queer-coded choices I made and did not understand at the time.

At a time when there is an escalation of moral panic and legislation seeking to eradicate LGBTQ+ people from society — particularly targeted at queer kids — I proudly embrace the queer identity I couldn’t own earlier in life. My artwork is a personal affirmation and a means of resistance. I owe it to the next generation of queer kids.