Description of Work

Identity - 2022 - Digital, created on Procreate - Not For Sale

Artist's Statement

I love writing stories. I love drawing stories. But due to school and work commitments, as well as wavering mental illness, I’ve never taken the time or had the drive to do what I love. With this project, I pursued my passions and made a story that represents me as a person and an artist.

“Identity”, is a digitally illustrated book (a graphic novel of sorts) that focuses on the LGBTQIA+ community by offering small personal stories from 3 students (including myself) on campus and statistics from our country showing how LGBTQIA+ people, especially youth, are affected. It also provides mental health resources, such as websites and hotlines, that readers and their friends or family may benefit from.

I made this particular story because as someone who is in the LGBTQIA+ community (being both pansexual and transgender), I couldn’t find information that made me feel more comfortable with myself or educated me on who I even was growing up. There was absolutely no content that was broad enough to cover the questions I was asking myself until I was a lot older.

While the internet has progressed now and there is more than enough queer content out there, I also want to contribute to this new age of coverage for the queer community by offering some of my own life experiences and two of my close friends in the queer community. I think it’s important to reveal the diversity of our experiences, positive and negative.

Overall, “Identity” is a piece of work that includes resources that can educate readers, whether they are in the queer community or not. It is also sensitive to the issues of mental health, addressing the common feeling of unhappiness (or anxiety) that a great number of queer individuals feel by encouraging resources that are available to help the most urgent feelings of depression and potential suicide.

If you wish to purchase any of these pieces, please contact the gallery director, Jacqueline Nathan (jnathan@bgsu.edu.)