OFM ART

Master of All Mediums

by Addison Herron-Wheeler

Louis Trujillo

Art provided by Louis Trujillo

Drag is already a complex artform: performers are often slammed if they don’t do their own makeup, make their own costumes, choreograph and conceptualize their own numbers, and then pull it all off flawlessly. Despite the renaissance, multi-faceted requirements of the drag world, Louis Trujillo is still called to take it one step further and capture the whole thing through the medium of visual art. “I incorporate my own gender performance into my work,” he explains. “What I mean by that is, before I create any drawing, I’m putting myself or other men, straight or gay, into female—well, what society calls female— clothing, accessories, wigs, and asking them to feel themselves in front of the camera. I do that, and I’ve also had the opportunity to do some drag performances.” With talent and a passion for both drawing and drag, Trujillo does run into some time constraints pursuing what could be two fulltime jobs, but he does find that the two mediums are complimentary. And by incorporating the connecting medium of photography, he is able to capture the drag looks he creates for himself and others and then draw them later. “I get to immortalize these performances and acts by creating these colored pencil drawings that will last a lifetime, and hopefully be shown in galleries and part of museum collections.” Having worked with many models, artists, and galleries, including the all-gay, male show Lavendar Mist, and an exhibition during Pride featuring all queer artists, Trujillo is a solidified fixture in the Denver art world. Next, he has his sights set on drag, including learning how to do his own costumes and makeup. Trujillo’s art makes no apologies for the bold and beautiful human form, highlighting curvy, full-figured, bearded queens in all their glory. “With my drawings, I really love to juxtapose thick beards and hairy chests with beautiful makeup, beautiful wigs, stiletto heels,” he says. “Heels are my favorite. I feel like if I have a couple drinks, I can walk in them pretty good.”

However, this self-love hasn’t always come so easily for Trujillo. While he is proud and bold now, like many queer people, his early years weren’t as rosy as his present. “Growing up LGBTQ, I really feel like a lot of LGBTQ people, we kind of experience an identity crisis,” he says. “I’ve really gone through a lot of anxiety in my life because of trauma that I went through as a young person.” Through that struggle, Trujillo discovered art, a way to put images and concepts to his thoughts and feelings. Next on the horizon for Trujillo, the plan is to keep putting ideas and energy into the world. “I definitely want to keep creating my drawings,” he explains. “And what I ultimately would love to do is, with any exhibition that I have my work in, I want to be able to perform, either at the reception or during a different day of the exhibition within the gallery space or the museum. I really want to help elevate the art of drag and gender performance because, to me, it truly is an art form. These performers are artists who are visually creating stories through their movements. I want to take these performances from the nightclubs and bring them into galleries and into museums and open them up to a whole new audience that might not usually see that type of art.”

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shamir A RAW DIAMOND, PLACED

by Veronica L. Holyfield

“After my first album cycle, I had seen it all,” Shamir says. “It was kind of a new renaissance of something that I had already been through.” In those few words, Shamir connects, and cuts deep. The correlation to the way the 26-year-old recording artist speaks of music is acutely parallel to the way many relate to the ebb and flow of mental health disorders. His durable resilience against the forceful infiltration of negativity that is rampant in the music industry is reminiscent of the steadfast toughness that resides in anyone who deviates from “perfect mental health.” Yet, we haven’t even started to discuss that parallel. Instead, we remain close to the conversation of art, life, creativity, and self-trust.

“I think the part that made it different is I did literally everything myself: self-release, self-manage, did all the videos myself, did the photography … like, literally everything myself. That was kind of challenging, but we stuck the landing,” Shamir explains. “I’ve always been a very DIY-or-die kind of person, but this was really put to the test.” The low-fi, eclectic, indie-rock artist touches on his latest record, the self-titled, full-length that was released in the fall of 2020. While the music may have been surrounded by a new venture of art and creation, it was the usual beast of album rollout: a vigorous cycle of promotion, press, and performance. Shamir has truly been through the seasons of the entertainment business. He originally emerged in 2014 with the release of Northtown, a curious EP that blends his nowsignature, honeyed, and silvery vocal tonality paired with upbeat, raw, and grimy rhythms, immediately grabbing the attention of audiences and music critics.

Since his debut, Shamir has released six albums, a plethora of limited-release singles and remixes, and has collaborated with mainstream and underground artists. He has also worked under a variety of record labels, management teams, and released music in every format possible. He has garnered both commercial recognition and seen DIY success, and through it all, his pace of production has been relentless and unwavering. Reflecting back over the last year, and specifically the album cycle that surrounded Shamir, he explains how his self-titled release was a different, albeit familiar experience. “I just write all the time. It is honestly, like, yes, that’s my job, and it’s something I do, but at this point, it’s a routine because it’s one of the few things that keeps me sane. It is my only really healthy, productive release,” he says. With a trust in himself, Shamir does what Shamir does, and that has carved out a unique space where his art morphs and contorts, shifts and changes, and shapes both current space and future direction. Yet, it hasn’t always been this way. “I don’t have any fear within trying; I’ve never been the type of person who has fear around trying things at all, actually. That’s why I’m such a jack of all trades. When I left my last management team, it wasn’t because of anything bad; it was because it was gonna be really hard for me to verbalize my vision, what I needed, and what I wanted. It’s much easier for me to execute,” Shamir explains. While there may not be a fear of trying things and taking a vision and turning it into a reality, there is something innately distinctive of which this skill was born. “I think it also is honestly just, like, trauma as well because being a Black, queer, nonbinary artist, there aren’t a bunch of people bowing down at your feet trying to help you see your vision through,” he shares. “I spent a lot of time just doing things on my own because no one cares to help.”

The queer experience is complex; it’s nuanced; it’s unique, and so is the experience of folks who experience deviations from mental health ideality. There is no one way to be, and for a person like Shamir who has developed a craft-like approach in navigating both realms of queerness and mental

I started doing my art just for me, for my own mental health. ”

wellness, there has been a process in discovering what works, and the ways in which to work it. “I am bipolar and I have to really think about my mental health and completely restructure my own life for my health. After I got diagnosed and started seeing my therapist, I realized that music is really therapeutic for me and kind of the only way I am able to work through my emotions,” Shamir says. “Naturally, I’m not really an emotional person; it’s really hard for me to verbalize and express my emotions, but it’s very easy for me to do it through my music, and through my art.” Shamir is a prolific songwriter, and he credits that to how integral writing has been in expressing those thoughts, feelings, and emotions that he is unable to verbalize. However, the vampiric nature of the music industry commodified and exploited what once was a healthy outlet, thus putting a strain on the relationship Shamir had with his art. It no longer held therapeutic value and instead became an industry venture.

After a few short years in music, Shamir had a falling out with his management team, was dropped from his record label, and was hospitalized. This is when Shamir was given the bipolar diagnosis and had to reexamine that therapeutic and necessary connection to art. “I think coming out of that, I started doing my art just for me, for my own mental health. That rewiring and restructuring of my brain and how I approach my art, my music, and my life was very, very important to me. Had I not realized that, and started using my and my music in that way, I’m not sure where I would be,” Shamir admits. Shamir holds nothing back; putting pen to paper, ink to canvas, frame to photograph, he makes what he needs when he needs it, and the fear of criticism is not a deterrent for the young, copious creator. It is only in working with executives and decision makers who decide what art is deemed worthy that Shamir holds issue with sharing his work. “I don’t mind releasing it and having people pick it apart; at the end of the day, I got what I needed out of it. But in the process of me making said art, to have ANR, management, label, all these people picking it apart even before it’s out, potentially morphing it into something that I hadn’t even imagined it to be, then that takes more of a mental toll than me releasing something so true to me and having people rip it apart,” he says. “This is how I wanted it, and this is how it made me feel, so you can hate it; I don't care; it wasn’t for you to begin with.”

With the 2020 release of Shamir, creating that reignited that passion for music again and was an empowering pursuit that just happened to find him a new kind of success. He considers this album to be something that awarded him his life back, and the fact that it is resonating with people is a cool, and unique, consolation prize. Shamir exudes confidence, self-trust, awareness, empathy, and a sense of humor. Yes, he has an uncanny ability in creating art that is moving, but even more so in sharing his experience authentically, making him even more relatable. If his art is for you, then take it, and if not, then there is someone out there who is for you. Unwavering in the pursuit of health and wellbeing, Shamir now fully understands that he is only willing to leverage his art in the ways that work for him. “I have more confidence now than I did, just because of the realization of a lot of these things. It’s one thing to possess something, and then it’s another thing to know what you possess: it’s two different things. You can have a raw diamond rate, but do you know how to shine it? Do you know how to cut it? Do you know how to place it? That’s kind of like how I look at my confidence and my strength,” Shamir says.

IT’S ONE THING TO

POSSESS SOMETHING, AND THEN IT’S ANOTHER THING TO KNOW WHAT

YOU POSSESS. ”

OFM NEW MUSIC

This month’s must-catch new releases from the artists you already love and the musicians you need to know.

Weezer

Van Weezer The fifteenth studio album by American rockers Weezer is an homage to the band’s influence Eddie Van Halen. The tracks feature heavy guitars and lean into an arena-rock style that is a welcoming return to the heavier sound of the veteran group. Originally slated for a 2020 release, the album was postponed due to the ongoing COVID pandemic. Get ready for some steadfast shredding and eager riffs, which is a lean into the crowd-favorite experience. A raucous, metal-centric LP is a warm welcome to spring.

Releases May 7, 2021.

Juliana Hatfield

Blood Featuring a collection of songs that are a reaction to how seriously and negatively people have been impacted by the last four years, Hatfield has used this project as a way to be influenced by the fun of writing music. Playing off the puzzle of melodies and lyrics, Blood explores the connection between beauty and softness with darkness and depth. Having written and recorded the album in her home in Massachusetts, she explores dark themes of modern, human psychology and behavior in the 19th studio album release.

Sons of Kemet

Black to the Future The U.K.-based, modern-jazz, super group’s sophomore release showcases harmonically elegant compositions coupled with a ferocious drive. The political themes are enveloped within the lush, African rhythms and modes that are expertly woven into Caribbean dub and Middle Eastern timbres. Featuring vocalists such as Kojey Radical on the single “Hustle,” Black to the Future is an enticing, sonic poem of power, remembrance, and healing.

Releases May 14, 2021.

Lord Huron

Long Lost Indie-folk quartet Lord Huron spent months alluding to the new release and have delivered a dreamy, country-Western aesthetic that proves the band is back and better than ever. Strumming guitars accompany the unique vocal crooning and harmonic melodies in Long Lost that is a signature mixture for the band. A reminiscent pining lives on in the new tracks, and time both stands still and moves fluidly throughout the album. The echo of a memory, the tracks recall times that may have been a dream, or perhaps more ...

Fatima Al Qadiri

Medieval Femme Invoking a simulated daydream through the metaphor of an Islamic garden, Qadiri is inspired by the classical poems of Arab women. Exploring the border between depression and desire, Medieval Femme weaves a supernatural story that is of the present, past, and future. Shaded with color and subtle friction, the album dives into themes of melancholic longing and transports listeners to a place of reverie and desolation. A true crossing into celestial sorrow and celebration.

Releases May 14, 2021.

k.d. lang

makeover In celebration of the soon-coming Pride Month, the LGBTQ legend will release makeover, a new collection of classic dance remixes of some of her iconic tracks. With lang’s muse being the memories of how community was built before social media and dating apps, she recalls the days of underground, dance clubs and relives that essence in the music. Connecting with a variety of producers, the memorable, hit tracks are reborn and will stand the test of time.

HIGH NOTE

St Vincent: Daddy’s Home

Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, re-emerges as the embodiment of all we want served this summer: authentic, raw, rough, cutting, edgy, and honest. Queers, prepare as you are delivered a delicious dose of fierce and finely finished funk with Daddy’s Home. Everything you know and love about St Vincent is not lost in the modern and complex artist’s sixth studio album. Innovative and intriguing, the first single, “Pay Your Way in Pain,” is an arousing and fiery experience that continues to see St Vincent push boundaries of both appeal and disapproval. Evoking a lustrous albeit piercing persuasion of sex, love, and rock ‘n’ roll, nothing familiar or repetitious is to ever be expected, and Daddy’s Home is no exception. Using her own life as inspiration, the title track of the new record is based on the experience of taking her father home from prison after nine years of incarceration. Leaning into the notion that we are all but flawed people doing our best, St Vincent abandons perfection for exposed candor, which, in this case, creates unforgettable art. No powers of persuasion necessary, listeners will eagerly buy into all the decadence that lives within the folding layers of sonic dissonance, sugary sweetness, and steamy sections chock full of heavy guitar and euphoric melodies.

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