Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Transwoman: Stage 4



This is the mixed media distressed painting in its current Adobe Photoshop state, layer 11. I will print "stage 4" using the large format printer, tear it up, and laminate some of the pieces – there’s a secret step at this point - onto the canvas board. After doing the dechirage (torn paper) I will once again cover everything with oil crayon and coat all with a heavy layer of opaque tempera, then scrape through everything. The painting will not be finished. Instead there will be at least 3 to 6 more layers to go. I usually work on 2 to 4 paintings simultaneously because I am constantly waiting for layers to dry on each painting.

So, I have begun another mixed media distressed painting, this one titled, "Two Spirits." The terms is not technically an LGBTQ term. Rather it is a term that refers to indigenous peoples, many cultures worldwide in which gender-diverse roles (boy and girl, neither, or other) are not only acceptable but understood as "normal," sometimes special, even spiritual in nature. From now on I will alternate work on the two paintings, Transwoman and Two Spirits.*

*"Normal" in Western cultures is understood to apply to a large group of people or things that are supposed to be similar. Mathematically, the concept "normal," norm is one number in the exact center of a set of numbers. In anthropology - the study of human cultures - "normal" as used in the West cannot be applied to other cultures, and is an inappropriate trope as used in our culture.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Trans Woman (Transwoman): History's Heroines - Stage 3



As I work on each painting in the LGBTQ Pictionary, I learn more and more about human sexuality in general, and the heroism of LGBTQ people in particular. “Trans Woman” is the exception, not for the lack of heroism, but because so many women risked their lives, reputation, happiness, love, everything that we as humans find valuable. So far I’ve buried in layers of paint such women as Lucy Hicks Anderson, Sir Lady Java, Rene Richards, and Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy (Coccinelle) At times I have been brought to tears reading of their heroism, and these are literally buried in the layers of paint, paper, glue and computer ink along with these heroic trans women. These "Trans Women" are heroines!

Today I will cover Stage 3 of “Transwoman” with oil crayon once again, and bury the image you see here completely with a layer of blue paint. While that is drying I will move on to put the first layer of paint on the new LGBTQ Pictionary painting, “Transvestia,” a painting about the magazine of that name from the 1970’s and 1980’s of the last century.