F. Gessner Art

Flory Gessner is probably accumulating fabric and paper as we speak. They are a librarian and folklore freak interested in exploring queerness in nature and history. The experience of having a body and gendered expectations are central to their work. They are an anti-imperialist Jew from the Midwest currently based in on Piscataway-Conoy and Susquehannock land (Baltimore.) ig: art_spiegelman_vaping_on_cnn

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These images are part of a WIP that reflects on the mundane beauty of my bus commute in East Baltimore. I'm not sure where this is going, if these will turn into paintings, a flip book, a video/short film or if they will stay private, but here is the raw data/material.

This job ends in approximately one month, so about one more season/light/clothing change will be documented. December 2024-2025 on a Street in East Baltimore under a train-bearing bridge, GAIN and AGAIN.

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Work in progress image, 2025

Layers and layers of fabric and paint go into the final image. I like to use fabric with history and a relationship to the body. Many of the fabric scraps come from masks I made for loved ones during the pandemic. Other scraps come from tailoring clothes to my body so they show the curves and shapes of my form. I am especially drawn to illustrations on fabric that recall girlhood, transformation, and the natural world.

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Work in progress: acrylic paint and fabric on canvas.

Portrait of a knitter (Flory Gessner 2025)

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a small portrait of my dad on his john deere, mowing the lawn in the midwest. (2025 Flory Gessner)

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An old protest sign from the first Tr*mp admin

Acrylic on cardboard, 2016

Flory Gessner Art

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An early experiment with fabric and acrylic paint on canvas.

Flory Gessner 2025

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One of my first large-scale fabric and paint collages made after my top surgery consult. Working through feelings of transformation, spirituality, gender, and sitting with one's body as is.

Fabric and acrylic paint on canvas, Flory Gessner 2025

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Works in progress photos of self-portraits, 2025 Flory Gessner

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Self-portrait after a gender-affirming cut and color (Acrylic on canvas)

Flory Gessner 2025.

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Portrait of the artist after getting a gender-affirming haircut. (acrylic) Flory Gessner 2025

I think we can all agree haircuts and color are gender-affirming care. This is a self-portrait of a moment of gender-affirmation following a hair makeover by one of my sisters. Sometimes even conversations and reference photos can help us find words and feel seen by others. The final result can give us joy and a sense of self that lasts for months and beyond.

I love using self-portrait as a means of checking in with myself.

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Yarn balls and crane wives (fabric, acrylic paint on canvas.) Flory Gessner, 2025 (11inX14in)

A fever dream of "women's work," girlhood, folklore, and floral growth on canvas. Fabric from clothing that felt affirming at different points in transition interspersed with questions of girlhood and art vs. craft.

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Options (kittens, peacocks and cranes) Collage, acrylic paint, fabric on canvas, Flory Gessner summer 2025.

This piece mixes imagery of childhood, girlhood, letters from therapists and surgeons, and creatures from below the sea and on land. Contemplating girlhood and a future as a cryptid as I await top surgery. Peacocks, gems, cranes, and kittens look to a future of transformation.

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frogs, cranes, chains, and net (fabric, collage and acrylic paint on canvas) Flory Gessner, summer 2025

Fabric new and old, paint, as well as text and magazine images are the basic of this work. As cishet couples around me marry and procreate, my mind is on gender-affirming surgery and folk tales that made sense of bodies like mine from around the world. This work was made while healing from surgery on my foot that delayed some long-awaited gender affirming care. As I took a trip to the Midwest for a straight wedding while injured, I was vulnerable and turning to my imagination to make sense of this world. Transforming frogs, crane wives, letters, riches, chains, and a sense of girlhood and womanhood always out of reach swirl around dreams of top surgery in this 11inx14in collage.