Thesis Abstract
My project entails a full redesign of the nonbinary flag. I have researched the origins of several flags such as the original pride flag, the progress pride flag, the original nonbinary flag, as well as the Welsh Red Dragon flag. I am redesigning the nonbinary flag not only because I am tired of all the pride flags being exclusively stripes, but also because I want to bring more prominence to nonbinary people as we are often left out of the queer community. The flag is both digitally printed on inkjet fabric and sewn together. The phoenix emblem represents several things: for one thing it represents the inherent rebirth of discovering one’s own gender nonconformity; how your old identity dies and your new identity rises from the ashes of the old one. It also represents the transience of the nonbinary gender; that you’re never truly one thing; that you’re always changing, always evolving, always playing, and never truly the same thing from day to day. The phoenix also represents divinity, as in many cultures gender nonconforming people are seen as divine rather than something to be feared. The candle held in its beak is symbolic of remembrance of the nonbinary people who came before us, both the people who were out and proud of their identities, and the people who spent their entire lives inside the closet and were never able to come out.
Artist Statement
There are many things about me that are taboo. For one thing, I am neither straight nor cis. I am bisexual and nonbinary, which are things that society finds revolting. In loving more than one gender, I muddle the narrative that people are only meant to love the opposite sex. In my rejection of both the masculine and feminine, I complicate the narrative that people are only meant to be the gender that they are born as. I am not a simple, rounded down shape, I am a complex human being, and that is what truly scares people. I exist not in any concrete notion laid down by society, but in the messy and truly human, inbetween. Society may wish for people like me to just curl up and die, but I refuse. People worship this notion that the human form is this simple, concrete thing. That there are only two genders and that there is only one way to love, but I refuse to believe this. As I have learned from my own coming of age, the true human self is not so easily stuffed into a box. The true human self is a messy thing, certainly, but it is this mess that makes humanity beautiful, and the sooner people embrace this thought, the better. My art intends to reflect this complexity of the self by showcasing things about me that common society wishes I would hide. I specialize in illustration with an emphasis on both character design as well as horror since these mediums allow for a great deal of play with taboos or other unusual or grotesque things. It is only by embracing and acknowledging these taboos about the self that we can truly move forward in society, and that, at the end of the day, is what my art is truly about.