#shittyphotoshop

[kaiyamato]

Here have a hastily made shitty meme.

[funkidrops]

nintendo’s biggest E3 reveal!?

[legnut]

Gayzilla! 

[sammmmnmmm]

imagine.......................... a baby dog

[lilabellequaintrelle]

One or Two? #selfcare #fancyfriday #shittyphotoshop #overedit #grunge https://www.instagram.com/p/CAhEcWiAwsR/?igshid=1vx6kyfqzw4n7

[graceattemptsart]

Artist Statment

Rooted in the tenets of socially engaged artistic practices, the mixed media piece, titled Small Town Queers, calls attention to the beautiful and painful experience of growing up queer in rural America. Inspired by the Instagram account, Queer Apelacia, and my history with growing up on a farm, the concept of collaging 3D printed cowbells was chosen because it is a rural relic that is quite literally used to call attention to something. However, because Small Town Queers is a project surrounding the idea of silenced voices, these cowbells are unique in that they do not make noise. They look like the object but are not capable of the task that they are intended for, which is eerily similar to how many rural folks feel about homosexuals. 

In order to truly capture the range of experiences that LGBTQ+ individuals live in rural areas, I reached out to my community and asked friends of all ages, sexualities, gender identities, and ethnicites to write in any style about their queer coming of age journey. No prompt or restrictions were provided as I am not interested in constraining voices, but uplifting them. Submissions were sorted based on their content and assigned to a 3D printed cowbell. Each of the five cowbells address a particular reality for queer individuals. If there were multiple submissions on the same subject, quotes were pulled from each response in order to achieve a greater breadth and depth. As the maker, I relinquished as much control as I could. The initial idea and basic designs came from my head, but the more complex design aspects were an artistic response to the submissions received. The content was not determined until submissions began to trickle in. In the end, the topics my queer community felt most passionate about were: access to preventative HIV medication, coming out to religious family members, sexual liberation, conversion therapy, and queer love. 

[slowmotion-nightmare]

Smokey balls

[slowmotion-nightmare]

Smokey says just the tip