My practice utilizes portraiture and still life images under the realm of queer abstraction to create my own visual language. Generally photographed in non-spaces, my images are fostered by my close, social relationships as I am endlessly inspired by conversations with my queer friends and my own introspection. How visual language can be fruitfully articulated using gesture specific to non-men is at the core of my work. Inversion as a tool and concept also acts as an underlying motif for queerness; whether I physically invert and “other” a site through still life or digitally use the invert tool, I am fascinated with the slippage of what is real and unreal. To play within distinct binaries such as masculine vs. feminine, softness vs. aggression, and pain vs. pleasure is to further transcend those binaries. Focusing specifically on the intersection of masc women/non-binary people and athleticism, I find myself appropriating homoerotic imagery of gay men as a way to photograph myself and others. Strong, muscular bodies, skin that sweats, bends, and gets dirty, and tension in actions completed with another person allows layers of access points depending on one’s identity. Athleticism has been reserved for boys, even as gay men have used athleticism for their own aesthetic interests. I’m interested in adding another layer that is central to gay woman and non-binary people, where some photographs are fully realized once viewed from a non-male perspective. To achieve my nuance and play within these dichotomies, I ask myself questions and think of transference within a statement. “What does something look like when it doesn’t exist anymore?”, “how do you queer a landscape?”, and offense and defense as top and bottom as strength and weakness. These become pillars that I construct and revolve around for long periods of time. My intention is to document those closest to me, in ways that honor them and the ephemeral time and space where the photograph is taken. To visualize my queer loved ones in a natural, yet carefully considered composition reveals undertones of eroticism and something that translates to the brink of pure joy. I work to uphold the queer people in my life by adding to queer imagery and aesthetic. For all time, my imagery exists as a love letter to all the masc women/non-binary people in my life.