Artist statement. New Icons is a project I began with the intention of finding my own visual history as a person with a non-normative body. Upon realizing that my image did not exist outside of medical textbooks, horror movies or sensational news media, I created this project to celebrate what it actually means to “look different” in an ableist society. New Icons specifically uplifts the variable faces and bodies of my burn injury community. With painted realist portraits, interviews, direct body printmaking and expressive paintings inspired by scar patterns, I took an auto-ethnographic approach and focused my documentation on our lived experiences.

This project is supported in part by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, Spokane Public Library Hive Artist Residency, and the Chalk Hill Artist Residency.