Queer The Streets

A street art project to increase the presence of queer faces in public spaces.

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Safe Schools  is a program that helps address and reduce bullying of queer and trans children. It was reviewed by the government and found to be "outstanding" and "necessary". Despite this the Aussie government cut it, because you know people are homophobic and transphobic. This is very upsetting. No matter where on the political spectrum you are, how can somebody be okay with bullying towards children? 

The painting was pasted in Collingwood. Its based on a photo of the super gorgeous Arisce Wanzer Official.

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One out of every seven transgender people live in poverty. The rate of poverty among transgender people is basically of outrageous. The numbers get work, because those transgender people that have jobs are more likely to be underemployed and work low income jobs. Having a low income is exacerbated by the expensive costs of transitioning. You can read more about the staggering rates of poverty among transgender people here.

This is pasted in the Collingwood neighborhood of Melbourne, Australia. The model for this painting is Morgan M Page. Who is doing great work advocating for trans people ans sex workers, and making great art in Montreal, Quebec. She also has basically the best twitter feed.

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Nearly half of homeless youth identify as queer This painting is pasted in Fitzroy, VIC (a suburb of Melbourne). Research shows that an extremely disproportionate amount of homeless youth are queer identified people. Fewer than 10% of the general population identifies as lgbt+, but roughly 40% of the homeless youth population identifies that way. Queer identified homeless youth are much more likely to be the victims of violence and sexual assault than their heterosexual counterparts. These difficult statistics speak to the reality that acceptance of queer people is still not there in modern society, and that ejecting children from families can have very dire consequences. You can read more here.

The model for this painting is based on the very lovely Chelsea Poe (link is NSFW). Please show them some love. 

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GrrlFest “Provocatuer” Party I’m always happy to be part of events by Grrlfest. The organize art and music festivals featuring female artist and performers, and recently started a monthly party called Provocateur. If you’re in Melbourne, and you follow this page, you definitely have to go to their next event! They invited me to be a part of the first party, so I installed this wall of portraits of queer babes! I thought it was a great opportunity to show some of the ideas I’d been working on. There’s even a painting of Grrlfest organizer Amy Broomstick in the mix.

You can keep up with Grrlfest’s productions on their twitter.

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We don’t care we will just be fierce. Portrait of the super lovely Daisy Ducati . This is pasted in Fitzroy. Its a very grey wall in a very colourful neighborhood so I thought it needed a splash of red.

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Our love is just as real. Pasted in Fitzroy, VIC. I was very excited by the supreme court ruling in the US recently. Congratulations to all my friends up in the US! I, personally, do not view marriage equality as purely symbolic. Anyone who has tried to move internationally with a partner, or anyone who has tried to adopt children understands that being married makes the process so much easier. So its a big deal that has real impacts for many people’s lives. But here in Australia, along with many other countries, marriage equality still does not exist.  I really have never understood why this is such a big deal to straight people (other than the basic fear of things that are different than them). When queer people fall in love its the same basic chemical reaction in their brains as with straight people.

The model for this painting is the mega-fierce artist Marian Machismo. Who lives and works here in Melbourne. 

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Contain Ya’self I had a lot of fun painting this portrait of queer porn icon Courtney Trouble. The painting is at Contain Ya’self an initiative being run by a couple rad queers babes that will be part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2015. If you love hanging out in creative spaces and/or supporting queer artists you should go spend some time over there. The space is made of two shipping containers. One serves as a creative space and art studio; the second is being used as a gallery. If you’re in Melbourne and you need a place to hold an event you should contact them. The containers are located behind Footscray Art Centre.

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Being ourselves My shows for this year are over, and I’m happy to get back to single paintings for the streets and for people. I’m also happy that the last show is over I can start experimenting with my style a little (hence the messy dots in the background). The text on this painting reads, “This is not for anyone else. It is just us being ourselves.” I guess this is cryptic enough to mean anything to anybody. ;) But I think its appropriate for queer expression. People often forget, or don’t understand, that when people express themselves against mainstream expectations its usually just because the person feels comfortable in that expression.

The painting is based on a photo of the super gorgeous Chelsea Poe. Check out all there stuff, and show them some mega-love!

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Half of all transgender people have been assaulted by a romantic partner. (translation of the text). Violence against transgender people is a serious issue, and needs to be dealt with. Statistics like this speak to the normalization of fear that is a large part of too many trans people’s lives.

This paste is in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Its another paste as part of the ArtFabric project, which connects street artists with under privileged communities. The model is Chelsea Poe. Who was recently honored by the Trans100 for her work in transgender activism and improving the conditions for trans sex workers. 

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Crackolandia in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

This installed as part of the Art Fabric project by Eric Marechal & Fabi Futata in the area called "Crackolandia Bandeirantes" near Sao Paulo, Brazil. From Eric, "...this is under a bridge, where a group of around 20 people live in the worst possible hygiene and safety conditions. The cars pass by and sometimes do not have the time to realize that people live here on piles of trash." This photo includes one of my paintings along with a person from the neighborhood. Both seem to bringing a little color to that space.

Please check out http://www.theartfabric.com/

They are doing great things bringing art to mostly forgotten people and places. They coordinate projects from street artists around the world, and install these paintings in areas of extreme poverty. The simple idea being that everybody deserves to have art in their life.

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GRRL FEST: Grrl fest is a music and arts festival featuring only female identified performers here in Melbourne. The festival is in its third year, and I believe they are already planning a 4th event. I was very happy to help decorate the main hall of the festival with some of my paintings.

The photos are reblogged from the GrrlFest and from the lovely (and pictured) Lexi Laphor.

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Installation at JOY 94.9 A couple weeks ago I installed some panels at JOY a queer radio station here in Melbourne. The paintings are from my last gallery show, and are all of transgender people. JOY is completely volunteer run, and a real positive part of the queer community here in Australia. So I am very happy to donate my paintings to decorate their space.

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There's Too Much Sexist Street Art A certain amount of street art paints women in a not very empowering way. Often women are painted with hyper-sexualized, unrealistic body shapes (over-sized lips, boobs, butts, and tiny waists). This always bothers me. There are so many degrading images of women in advertisements scattered around the city and on tv. Its sad to me when artists do the same exact thing. Personally, I'd rather see women painted as if they are people with their own identity, rather than simply a decorative element. 

These paintings are based on 2 bad ass queer feminists that I've drawn inspiration from. I hope you enjoy them.  xx

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Mural at Minus18 I spent this past week painting a mural at Minus18 a organization for queer youth in Melbourne. As part of the Queer the Streets project I wanted to decorate queer friendly places. The people I interacted with at minus18 were all lovely, friendly people. The painting is based on portraits from the Identity Project. I wanted it to be as inclusive as possible so instead of only writing the identities of those pictured, as I normally do, I wrote all the labels used in the Identity Project as a tag style background, and then painted the mural on top of that.

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20% of transgender people will experience homelessness.  This awful statistic is a result of so many transgender people not having anywhere to go. Parents often reject transgender children, and employers are less like to hire trans people. So far too many end up on the streets. If people just treat transgender people as if they are just another person, perhaps more would be able to live full lives. 

This is pasted in Collingwood, VIC (a suburb of Melbourne). The portrait is based on the lovely and inspiring Mia Tu Mutch.

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Queer The Streets art show at Melbourne Pride festival. As part of the Midsumma festival I am putting on a show of 16 portraits of transgender, and gender diverse, people. I've done several posts and street art pieces on the mistreatment of trans people. I wanted to put something out into the world that would be empowering to trans people. So the paintings are all large size paintings, that are designed to celebrate the beauty and strength of transgender lives. The show opens 21 January at Tacit art gallery (312 Johnston St, Abbotsford, VIC).

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We can speak for ourselves, thanks. I'm in full show preparation these days so its hard to get large pieces out in public. So I made paste of a small practice piece I did of writer Parker Molloy. One of the great things that's happening in the trans community is the establishment of a number of voices that are speaking up and adding this perspective to the world. Molloy is doing great work on speaking out on issues of trans, lgbt and women's rights.  See her writings here.