Queer Chimera
This body of work is about relationships: with oneself, gender, and chosen and biological family. In the name, the word “chimera” not only means combining different elements into one, but can also be used to describe a figment of the imagination, or an illusion. I imagine these relationships as chimeras, combining creatures with dream-like landscapes, highlighting their connection to each other.
The interplay of creature, object, and landscape represent real-life relationships. I employ color, composition, and symbolism to create corresponding feelings of warmth, playfulness, tension, or numbness.
This collection of work is a way for me to celebrate my queerness and the process of building a chosen family, and a way to process the grief and loneliness of lost connections.
I hope that viewers will approach their own relationships with a sense of curiosity and imagine new ways of understanding those bonds.
* available works are indicated with an “*” for purchase inquiries, please fill out contact form here. *
* grief, 2024
hand embroidery on reclaimed fabric,
20” x 33”
Based on my experience of grieving my estranged father’s death in November, 2020 after battling lung cancer.
I drew from horror aesthetics: harsh, contrasting colors, alien-like deep sea creatures, and the quiet, lifeless midwest winter landscape. All of this helped depict the heavy numbness of experiencing my first real grief in the dead of winter, with no clear sense of the future. The chair depicted is directly based on the one in his hospital room.
gynandromorph i, 2024
hand embroidery on linen, 3”x4”
This piece was inspired by a specific bilateral gynandromorph lobster named Bowie, discovered by a Maine fisherman named Jacob Knowles.
In relation to this body of work, sea life and water symbolizes emotions and the subconscious.
gynandromorph i, 2024
hand embroidery on linen, 3”x4”
This piece was inspired by a specific mosaic gynandromorph rainbow stag beetle, bred by an office worker named Takaaki Irizawa from Osaka, Japan. His children named the beetle Shiyuchan.
In relation to this body of work, insects, animals and plant life symbolize materiality, abundance and the body.
As a parallel to my relationship with gender, I started researching sexual diversity in nature and came across gorgeous real life examples. Gynandromorphism is the display of both male and female characteristics in animals, caused by a rare genetic mutation.
inner comfort, 2024
hand embroidery on linen and reclaimed fabric,
6 ½” x 6 ½”
I created this scene to reflect on themes of safety, rest, comfort, and escapism while recently recovering from top surgery. I was forced to be patient with myself, to sleep, eat, and move slowly, in a world that demands constant overexertion.
Numerous comforts are depicted: pillows, blankets, sentimental objects, and the implied soft sounds of cooing and chiming bells. I also incorporated nods to Studio Ghibli films that I return to when I crave familiarity, beauty, and an escape from pain.
* spirituality, 2024
hand embroidery on linen and reclaimed fabric, 6 ½” x 4 ¾”
For me and my loved ones, the river is a place for emotional bonding and spiritual cleansing. When I swim in that water, I can feel how everything around me teems with life, and it eases my anxieties about my own physicality, as just another body existing in a complex biome.
In this piece, I reflect on the relationships of many different species (from algae, to insects, to plantlife), joining together in a kind of cosmic union.
sentimentality, 2024
gouache and colored pencil on wood panel, 18” x 24”
Incorporating symbolism for queer love through violets and pansies, this piece is a celebration of partnership and romance. Additionally, ginkgo leaves symbolize transness, as ginkgo trees have the ability to change sex.
curiosity, 2023
acrylic on plaster, 3 ½” x 5”
This painting was the inspiration for much of this body of work in its subject matter. I loved the process of creating natural landscapes with a surreal glow. I wanted to make a little world inside this tiny frame for my slug to discover.
* the beach episode, 2024
hand embroidery on linen and reclaimed fabric, 12 1/2” x 14”
This scene depicts a moment of queer joy, indulging in the presence of friends and nature. This sort of peace feels difficult to find in a chaotic world that feels so threatening to myself and the people I love. It makes these moments of blissful escapism all the more precious.
* regrets, 2023
hand embroidery on reclaimed fabric. 16 1/2” x 16”
Regrets in relationships become very clear when one of those people is in their last stages of life. It’s likely my father and I both had regrets regarding our estranged relationship while his health declined due to lung cancer in 2020. I created this piece to help process those feelings of regret over unspoken words, represented through an unopened letter. Fasciated willow branches and the golden ring/ coffee stain represent mourning and the unending cycle of life and death, respectively. The color palette was chosen to be jarring and to elicit feelings of uneasiness and illness.