Archive: Trunk Portraits

Seattle, WA 2014-2017

Oil on Canvas

These paintings are portraits of neighbors, created during my time living in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Each took a very long time to paint; I wanted to capture a non-hierarchical attention to detail in the organic texture. No inch of bark is more or less important than another. The rough and lush natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest seeps into its urban centers, providing touchpoints with the wild even in manicured parks. The climate pushes out moss on all surfaces. This ‘everywhere at once’ life and growth imprinted the color green onto my psyche. It is a feminist insistance on ecosystemic thought, and an organic resistance to the continued colonisation of the region. It is queer in its intricate flamboyance.