Tag Archives: trans art

Trans Dino-Witch, a vision of protection and safety for trans folx.

Trans Dino Witch sculpture by Suzanne Forbes Aug 26 2017My Trans Dino-Witch is finished at last! I’ve been working on her all month.

Trans Dino Witch sculpture by Suzanne Forbes Aug 26 2017 neo nazis running awayShe was a huge project for such a small work!

I am thrilled to have finished her and she gives me strength. I hope other folks will find strength in her too.

Look at those pathetic, evil Neo-Nazis running away from her mighty teeth!

Look at her group of friends who are riding along on her back to support her and enjoy the mayhem!

I made their tiny colored hair out of nail flocking powder, way cheaper than fancy “craft” flocking powder. You can get a set of 10 colors on eBay for a euro.

Trans Dino Witch sculpture by Suzanne Forbes Aug 26 2017 friendsShe is a companion work to my Pride piece, Queer Dino-Witch, which I made last month.

Trans Dino Witch sculpture by Suzanne Forbes Aug 26 2017It was harder to make her, because I had some harder feelings. I realized while making her that I often connect deeply with trans women partly for a very sad reason.

Most of the trans women I know have C-PTSD from repeated, systemic sexual violence, as I do.

Although my Trans Dino Witch is a work about Neo-Nazis, the despicable Alt-Right, I can’t make art about trans folk without thinking about the other kinds of attacks they suffer.

During the making of this piece the Orange Shitclown lashed out violently at transfolk.

He announced (on twitter, of course) that he intended to ban trans people from serving in the US military. Just yesterday he signed a formal memo. Since trans people have been serving with honor in the US military since at least 1862, lots of luck running the armed forces without them.

Also during the making of this piece, Chelsea Manning built a rainbow army of loving, celebrating followers who just won’t stop being brave and kind.

trans girl dinowitch in process by Suzanne ForbesSuck that, neo-fascist real estate golem!

I tweeted Chelsea a photo of our cat being cute on one of the particularly horrible days for trans people in August and she thanked me personally! So nice!!

She has made #WeGotThis a banner for the power of trans people and their unbelievable determination to survive and thrive.

 

I named the Trans Dino-Witch Catherine, after the late, legendary artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones.

My generation of comic artists was so inspired by Jeffrey Catherine Jones and her commercial and comics artwork that always transcended the commercial.  I hope she would like this tribute.

Catherine is a work built on a legacy of artists who inspire me. First, the incredible sculptor and assemblage artist Elizabeth McGrath. In 2005 I saw her show Altarwise By Owl Light at Billy Shire Fine Arts in Culver City.

She is the artist who opened my eyes to the power of modern assemblage and pop-surrealist artists. Her works are creepy, adorable, mythological and emotionally meaningful.

And some of them have little railroad miniature people in them! And they’re full of fake fur and Swarovski crystals and weird shit she found somewhere! And they’re like being hit in the heart with a bus.

So finally using tiny railroad people in a piece is my tribute to Liz McGrath.

I was also very influenced by the constant miniature close-ups on the Instagram feed of Jake and Dinos Chapman. The group of works by these YBAs called “Hell” is an intensely political anti-Nazi work that took them two years to complete and used 60,000 toy soldiers.

I decided to do dinosaur witches for Pride because of Mab GravesDinoKitty show at Red Truck Gallery in New Orleans this year.

I thought, Dino-Kitties! That’s a fine idea. I wonder why you never hear about Dino-Witches

Mab Graves has been hugely inspiring to me as an artist who never apologizes for making paintings, illustrations, sculptures (in a craft-identified medium iike needle felt!), commercially produced prints and diffusion line mass produced t-shirts all at once.

I love that she gets to make unique fine art objects and show them at the national level and sell melamine plates in her Etsy store.

She controls it all and completely owns her brand, despite enduring years of suffering from endometriosis, which she has been courageously transparent with her fan base about. Inspiring as fuck! I can’t work as hard as she does, but I am working as hard as I can.

Most of all, Catherine the Trans Dino-Witch was inspired by the Degenderettes LGBTQiA flag baseball bats made by Scout Tran.

Seeing those clear, bright flag stripes pass by in my Instagram feed day after day – seems like queer people are playing a lot of baseball lately, or something – is surprisingly comforting.

I give back 10% of my Patreon income to young queer and trans cartoonists and comic artists. Scout is one of them. So is Sam Orchard. Because fuck, the only people who have a harder and shittier time making a living as artists (especially as comic artists) than cis women are trans people.

Trans Dino Witch sculpture by Suzanne Forbes Aug 26 2017My Patrons made it possible for me to spend fifty hours sculpting, painting and dressing Catherine. I hope she gives back some strength and inspiration.

Trans Day of Visibility. A light in the darkness.

D and s Jan 2012 by Suzanne Forbes

D and s Jan 2012 by Suzanne Forbes

Every Trans Day of Remembrance my heart is shredded. I don’t know if Trans Day of Visibility eases that pain at all; I can’t know because my experience is only cis.

But I hope I can help to make trans folk visible and celebrated today.

alix of the inverted eye at fat city folsom eve by Suzanne Forbes 2008

alix of the inverted eye at fat city folsom eve by Suzanne Forbes 2008

I have shared my life with trans people always, and my art has always tried to make a beautiful and honorable record of them.

At Marquis Fetish Ball 7 18 09 by Suzanne Forbes

At Marquis Fetish Ball 7 18 09 by Suzanne Forbes

I am more committed than ever to documenting trans folk with love and respect in 2017, a frightening, regressive year after some incremental progress towards basic decency.

Jiz Lee at Nude Aid by Suzanne Forbes 2009

Jiz Lee in red jockstrap at Nude Aid fundraiser by Suzanne Forbes 2009

At Berlin Graphic Days Suzanne Forbes July 1 2016

At Berlin Graphic Days Suzanne Forbes July 1 2016

Many of these drawings are licensed Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivs.

That means they can be freely shared, reprinted and re-used for any noncommercial purpose as long as you credit “Suzanne Forbes, artist.”

They can be printed out and displayed as well.

If the version online isn’t high enough res for your needs, just contact me and I’ll try and find a bigger file for you!

I make as much art as possible that belongs to the community. If you want me to make your picture, let me know!

You can find lots of free drawings in my  Visibility album.

Here’s one of my favorites. It’s from a fetish party at the Supper Club in 2008.

Liza at the Marquis Fetish Ball 8 30 2008 by Suzanne Forbes

Liza at the Marquis Fetish Ball 8 30 2008 by Suzanne Forbes

I will happily donate my art time and art to any LGBTQi art fundraiser here in Berlin, just ask! if I am well enough (I’m disabled and have chronic illness) I’ll be there with bells on!

I am so grateful for the support of my Patrons, who make my work possible.

I am an entirely Patron-Powered artist; If you want to help with my mission of art-documenting LGBTQi community, alternative culture and immigrant life in Berlin, just click here.