LINEFEEL: Home

This is a public post.

LINEFEEL is about taking difficult experiences and reducing them to the simplest visual communication I can muster. This becomes a valuable skill when a situation costs so much energy that I can barely imagine creating more than a doodle. From the LINEFEEL series comes an image considerably more involved.

Today's image, Home, is about how it feels when God—a shorthand of which I'm still figuring out the specifics— speaks to me. The following artist statement was submitted to Gender Unbound, an art festival exclusively for trans and/or intersex creators. Gender Unbound commissioned my artistic response to the theme "Home", in whatever shape it took, and I'm honoured to now share it with you all.

--

To render an image of home, I must reckon with many dichotomies:

My blood family is not my found family.
Following tradition is not always following my heart.
Suburban cohesion is not an ancient bond.
Childhood survival tactics won’t serve me well into adulthood.

Home, to me, is its own dichotomy. In my mind, I experience a feeling of what Home looked like, what I thought it was supposed to look like. This wasn’t the truest and deepest portrayal of the concept. As an adult, I found that Home is about feeling respected and trusted. Those deemed as Other or Less-than understand: Home is not a white upper middle class Nuclear Family. Home is not getting high marks in school. It’s not even getting your parents to like you. Home is to be yourself, unabashedly, to explore the uncertainties of your core without needing to fake confidence, and to have people that make you grateful to be on your own journey.

The dichotomy of my Home is my past and my present, the lies and the truth. Church steeples and template suburban homes force their way into the composition. In the foreground, a family affronts this hellish sprawl and thrives in spite of the chaos. They are tied by ancient bonds far greater than any social scripting.

---

Patrons will get an extra article on the context behind this image, including its creation process. Please consider donating as little as 6¢/day to support my work and gain exclusive access to more content like this.

You may purchase a canvas print with proceeds going to Gender Unbound.

Thank you for reading.

Love,

-J