4 minute read
Four queer atrists share their experience with community
LGBTQ+ PRIDE SPECIAL | ARTS & LIFE Creative and queer: Four Tucson LGBTQ+ artists express their individuality
YASMINE GRANT uses her art as a way to express herself and inspire others to express themselves. She said most of her paintings are genderless and colorful portraits, which she wants people to be able to look at and think “Wow ... I can do that in real life and people will love it.” Grant’s first art show in Tucson was part of an event for LGBTQ+ artists. “It was really cool and I was meeting a lot of other people within the community my age, so like it was a learning experience … And from that, I grew, because I knew I could express myself through my art,” Grant said. ANAYSA STARK works as a painter, tattoo artist, clothing designer and drawer as well as a spectrum prevention navigator at the Arizona Aids Foundation located at the Thornhill Lopez Center on 4th. Stark said that “as an artist, I strive to just crush barriers
TOP LEFT: Frank Heightchew-Howard stares down at their mask. TOP RIGHT: Piranha handcrafted the mask and necklace out of found-objects and modeling clay. BOTTOM: Piranha lies atop a bench in full costume.
FRANK HEIGHTCHEWHOWARD, also known by their stage name Piranha, is a gender performance artist and a senior at City High School. According to Heightchew-Howard, the look above was inspired by a nightmare they had in which their mental health turned into a monster. “This look — it’s kind of like I killed the monster, it’s like … I’m wearing it as a costume because it’s something outside of me
now,” they said. and crush oppression and not let anyone put me in a box.”
ARTS & LIFE | LGBTQ + PRIDE SPECIAL Creative and queer: Four Tucson LGBTQ+ artists express their individuality
uses her art as a way to express herself and inspire others to express themselves. She said most of her paintings are genderless and colorful portraits, which she wants people to be able to look at and think “Wow ... I can do that in real life and people will love it.” Grant’s first art show in Tucson was part of an event for LGBTQ+ artists. “It was really cool and I was meeting a lot of other people within the community my age, so like it was a learning experience … And from that, I grew, because I knew I could express myself through my art,”
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LEFT: Yasmine Grant holds her piece entitled High Scream. ENTER: Candy girl by Yasmine Grant.
CENTER TOP
RIGHT:Pieces titled Aciedelic (right), Pieces (left) and Culture (bottom) are part of a series she painted while working through different emotions.
works as a painter, tattoo artist, clothing designer and drawer as well as a spectrum prevention navigator at the Arizona Aids Foundation located at the Thornhill Lopez Center on 4th. Stark said that “as an artist, I strive to just crush barriers and crush oppression and not let anyone put me in a box.” Stark aims to bring some creativity to safe sex in the queer community with her series of safe sex practice characters. “As a queer kid it wasn’t something that was taught to me because it was very stigmatized,” Stark said. She says that her art “sometimes teeters that line of making people mad, which is okay because if my art has a statement and it makes you think about things, that’s what I’m excited about.”
DANIEL GONZALEZ, also known by their drag name Baphne Templar, is a drag creature and visual artist. Gonzalez explained that much of their art explores feelings of being an outsider. They described their art as “monster-y and kind of gory” and said it “definitely reflects how I felt as a queer person in a cis, heteronormative world”.
TOP LEFT: Gonzalez’s altered plushy entitled Shmoop. TOP RIGHT: Baphne Templar in a look entitled Frankenstein Chic. MIDDLE:Baphne Templar lounges against a brick wall. BOTTOM: Zombunny by Daniel Gonzalez.
“I know to a lot of queer people, monsters, they kind of feel like home … I just kind of feel more at peace being a monster,” Gonzalez said.
