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Thesis Work
Convergence
2022
47x35 inches
Oil on Canvas
This work speaks to the multiple intersectional identities that one holds and juggles throughout the entirety of one's life.
Jewish Identity
2023
20 x 20 inches
Acrylic on Canvas
(in continuation of Convergence series)
In continuation from my piece "Convergence," Jewish Identity looks deeper into what represents my Jewish Heritage, ethnicity and culture.
Reciprocity
2022
24x36 inches
Oil on Canvas
This piece is about community care and the idea that we learn about ourselves through one another.
Image Description: This piece has a white background with several colorful overlapping circles. The circles each have four smaller circles inside. Each circle has multiple different colors in several sections and are different sizes. Each outer circle is different sizes and the sizes of the circles are small and large as one views the piece from top to bottom
Image Description: This piece has a white background with several colorful overlapping circles. The circles each have four smaller circles inside. Each circle has multiple different colors in several sections and are different sizes. Each outer circle is different sizes and the sizes of the circles are small and large as one views the piece from top to bottom
Burn The House Down, Start Over. 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Performance Piece and Posters from Performance.
Documentation of Performance with ASL Interpreter Kip Opperman from July 23rd, 2022.
Image Description: Leah’s drag alter ego Prin Charming is on stage for a 3 minute and 40 second drag performance. The performance starts by Prin Charming representing a too cool for school white dude who doesn’t care about politics and social justice. As the song Burn The House Down by AJR continues, the man starts to learn new information and changes their perspective. By the end of the performance, the person becomes an activist and stands up for marginalized people’s rights. Prin Charming starts with a football jersey, black pants, a blue baseball hat and black sunglasses. Then, the song progresses and they strip down into a firefighter costume. During this moment, five people in masks start to enter the stage and are representing political figures that are against human rights. Towards the end of the performance, these five people become activists as well and hold up posters from several different intersectional social justice organizations and movements. The posters read: my body my choice, you are on stolen land, stop asian hate, protect kids not guns, all Black lives matter, solidarity with several religious symbols, say gay and protect trans kids, mental health matters, justice for murdered and missing indigenous women and climate justice now. Prin Charming crowns themself and ends with wearing and showing off a land back jersey. There is American Sign Language on the right side of the screen interpreting the performance.
Image Description: Leah’s drag alter ego Prin Charming is on stage for a 3 minute and 40 second drag performance. The performance starts by Prin Charming representing a too cool for school white dude who doesn’t care about politics and social justice. As the song Burn The House Down by AJR continues, the man starts to learn new information and changes their perspective. By the end of the performance, the person becomes an activist and stands up for marginalized people’s rights. Prin Charming starts with a football jersey, black pants, a blue baseball hat and black sunglasses. Then, the song progresses and they strip down into a firefighter costume. During this moment, five people in masks start to enter the stage and are representing political figures that are against human rights. Towards the end of the performance, these five people become activists as well and hold up posters from several different intersectional social justice organizations and movements. The posters read: my body my choice, you are on stolen land, stop asian hate, protect kids not guns, all Black lives matter, solidarity with several religious symbols, say gay and protect trans kids, mental health matters, justice for murdered and missing indigenous women and climate justice now. Prin Charming crowns themself and ends with wearing and showing off a land back jersey. There is American Sign Language on the right side of the screen interpreting the performance.
trauma starts with EXPECTATIONS!
2022
Oil on Canvas with pieces of mirror
30x40 inches
This piece is about mental illness, disability and trauma. Gender (genital) reveals are transphobic, homophobic and racist (from past colonialism history of the sex binary). These reveal “parties” aren’t celebrations, but the start of toxic expectations. These reveals start wildfires, kill people and have hurt people both physically and mentally. This work speaks to the trauma that not only a baby faces as they grow up, but also the parents face when labeling their child a certain gender identity. Trauma starts with expecting a certain outcome of your child. Trauma starts with expecting to live up to what your parents want. This piece is exploring expectations and is actively pushing against them. This piece is confronting trauma at the source and making space to change expectations. As soon as a parent(s) has a gender (genital) reveal and expects the balloon to pop with pink or blue confetti, trauma starts. Even if a kid ends up truly identifying with being a boy or a girl, there are still expectations for what this means to both the parent(s) labeling them this and the kid living up to their parents expectations (of what being a “boy” or “girl” even is to begin with). The mom who created these reveals also apologies for starting this horrible trend, as their child is now nonbinary. This piece is engaging with experiences from my own perspective as someone who has seen the worst of these reveals and is seeing people in their own family doing these toxic and transphobic events.
Image Description: A white bodied figure is sitting on a stool popping their black balloon head and cutting into a cake wearing only green sneakers with white socks and a navy blue shirt that reads: B∆BY on it. There is another white bodied figure with a black popping balloon head on the left side of the other body with breasts out and wearing a green skirt. The balloon heads are popping green confetti out of them. There is wallpaper in rainbow colors with different stereotypical gendered objects or hobbies in each piece of the wallpaper (basketball stuff, red purse and a heel, baseball bat, baseball and boxing gloves, mirror and makeup and construction worker tools and signs that read caution). There are big pink and blue balloons at the top that say “IT’S A” and there is a blue and pink cake that says “boy” and “girl” on each side. There are huge fires starting on both sides of the floor next to the figure.
Image Description: A white bodied figure is sitting on a stool popping their black balloon head and cutting into a cake wearing only green sneakers with white socks and a navy blue shirt that reads: B∆BY on it. There is another white bodied figure with a black popping balloon head on the left side of the other body with breasts out and wearing a green skirt. The balloon heads are popping green confetti out of them. There is wallpaper in rainbow colors with different stereotypical gendered objects or hobbies in each piece of the wallpaper (basketball stuff, red purse and a heel, baseball bat, baseball and boxing gloves, mirror and makeup and construction worker tools and signs that read caution). There are big pink and blue balloons at the top that say “IT’S A” and there is a blue and pink cake that says “boy” and “girl” on each side. There are huge fires starting on both sides of the floor next to the figure.
As Fragile As An Egghead 2021
Mixed Media
16x7.5x7 inches
This sculpture is another idea I developed on the fragility of whiteness. This piece compares white fragility to a cracked egg.
As Fragile As A Paper Cut 2021
Oil on Canvas 20x24x2inches
Within the study of whiteness, there is white saviorism, white innocence and white fragility. In this piece, I compare myself and other white people to be as fragile as a papercut.
Stop Talking
2021
Mixed Media
38.5x30x14 inches
Black people know about their Blackness, but white people don’t know about their whiteness. This piece shares my view on what white people need to do (stop talking and start listening). On the canvas is a reset tv screen of colors rebooting, with politicians, celebrities and other white people who have caused problems for BIPOC while speaking to a wider audience. The white keyboards represent white people who also take up space on the internet and people who should not be speaking. The keyboard has S-T-O-P blocked in on the left and T-A-L-K-I-N-G on the right so that people can see these words in the piece. There is also braille lettering on each letter that is not painted over on the keyboard for people with visual impairment or blindness to engage with my work. I have been continuing to look for ways to make my paintings accessible to different disabilities and this was a way to experiment with that.
No Justice, No Pieces
2021
Linoleum Print on Paper with Black Ink
14 x 10.5 inches
Leah/They
2020
Oil on Board
54x33 inches
This painting series is about gender identity and bodies connected to beauty. I asked my participants to pick poses they liked and wanted, not what I liked and wanted. This was important to me because safety and comfort in my projects is the number one importance. I asked each person their favorite color(s) and flower(s). We talked for 20-30 minutes in depth, which is also what I put in my new film. 2020 was the deadliest year for trans and non-binary individuals in the United States (specifically trans women of color). More than 40 individuals were murdered this year. While I don’t want this to be the focus of my project, it inevitably will always come up in discussion. While this topic is important, I didn’t want that to be the focus of this series. Many times, we focus on the tragedies, deaths and traumas within vulnerable and oppressed communities, but I wanted to take the time to focus on the lighter and more positive aspects of what these people mean to the world. This series takes a closer look at the beauty and growth within the trans and non-binary community. The bright colors and the flowers growing on each individual represents light in the darkness and the change, growth, strength and beauty each person uniquely brings to this world.
She/They
2020
Oil on Canvas
24x35.5 inches
This painting series is about gender identity and bodies connected to beauty. I asked my participants to pick poses they liked and wanted, not what I liked and wanted. This was important to me because safety and comfort in my projects is the number one importance. I asked each person their favorite color(s) and flower(s). We talked for 20-30 minutes in depth, which is also what I put in my new film. 2020 was the deadliest year for trans and non-binary individuals in the United States (specifically trans women of color). More than 40 individuals were murdered this year. While I don’t want this to be the focus of my project, it inevitably will always come up in discussion. While this topic is important, I didn’t want that to be the focus of this series. Many times, we focus on the tragedies, deaths and traumas within vulnerable and oppressed communities, but I wanted to take the time to focus on the lighter and more positive aspects of what these people mean to the world. This series takes a closer look at the beauty and growth within the trans and non-binary community. The bright colors and the flowers growing on each individual represents light in the darkness and the change, growth, strength and beauty each person uniquely brings to this world.
They/She/He
2020
Oil on Board
30x42 inches
This painting series is about gender identity and bodies connected to beauty. I asked my participants to pick poses they liked and wanted, not what I liked and wanted. This was important to me because safety and comfort in my projects is the number one importance. I asked each person their favorite color(s) and flower(s). We talked for 20-30 minutes in depth, which is also what I put in my new film. 2020 was the deadliest year for trans and non-binary individuals in the United States (specifically trans women of color). More than 40 individuals were murdered this year. While I don’t want this to be the focus of my project, it inevitably will always come up in discussion. While this topic is important, I didn’t want that to be the focus of this series. Many times, we focus on the tragedies, deaths and traumas within vulnerable and oppressed communities, but I wanted to take the time to focus on the lighter and more positive aspects of what these people mean to the world. This series takes a closer look at the beauty and growth within the trans and non-binary community. The bright colors and the flowers growing on each individual represents light in the darkness and the change, growth, strength and beauty each person uniquely brings to this world.
They/Them
2020
Oil on Canvas
48x24 inches
This painting series is about gender identity and bodies connected to beauty. I asked my participants to pick poses they liked and wanted, not what I liked and wanted. This was important to me because safety and comfort in my projects is the number one importance. I asked each person their favorite color(s) and flower(s). We talked for 20-30 minutes in depth, which is also what I put in my new film. 2020 was the deadliest year for trans and non-binary individuals in the United States (specifically trans women of color). More than 40 individuals were murdered this year. While I don’t want this to be the focus of my project, it inevitably will always come up in discussion. While this topic is important, I didn’t want that to be the focus of this series. Many times, we focus on the tragedies, deaths and traumas within vulnerable and oppressed communities, but I wanted to take the time to focus on the lighter and more positive aspects of what these people mean to the world. This series takes a closer look at the beauty and growth within the trans and non-binary community. The bright colors and the flowers growing on each individual represents light in the darkness and the change, growth, strength and beauty each person uniquely brings to this world.
He/Him
Oil on Canvas
30x48 inches
2020
This painting series is about gender identity and bodies connected to beauty. I asked my participants to pick poses they liked and wanted, not what I liked and wanted. This was important to me because safety and comfort in my projects is the number one importance. I asked each person their favorite color(s) and flower(s). We talked for 20-30 minutes in depth, which is also what I put in my new film. 2020 was the deadliest year for trans and non-binary individuals in the United States (specifically trans women of color). More than 40 individuals were murdered this year. While I don’t want this to be the focus of my project, it inevitably will always come up in discussion. While this topic is important, I didn’t want that to be the focus of this series. Many times, we focus on the tragedies, deaths and traumas within vulnerable and oppressed communities, but I wanted to take the time to focus on the lighter and more positive aspects of what these people mean to the world. This series takes a closer look at the beauty and growth within the trans and non-binary community. The bright colors and the flowers growing on each individual represents light in the darkness and the change, growth, strength and beauty each person uniquely brings to this world.
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