In the wake of numerous transphobic executive orders since the inauguration, I was drawn to create a nurturing Gender Queer Deity to pray to when feeling overwhelmed, isolated, and scared. The resulting project, You are the Beacon, You are the Storm, combines cyanotype prints of nine genderqueer individuals from my life who have shone the way for what is possible by being their authentic selves. Before printing my cyanotypes, I leave the negatives outside for days to be exposed to the elements, collaborating with nature to alter the negatives as they will, and incorporating those changes into my final collage. The tension between holding on and letting go, searching and finding, confusion and knowing, are the guides to his work. The resulting figure serves as a resting place where difference and belonging exist together.   

The accompanying alter for the installation includes a prayer book consisting of devotionals from the people who were photographed and those called to add prayers while during the exhibition. The result is a polyphonic invocation to the Gender expansive deity we seek, and the one inside us.