Art therapy program hosts its first trans art party for Pride Month

The Trans Artivist Project seeks to raise trans folks up and provide support through art and validation year round

Whether by laughing or crying together, supporting trans folks on their journeys of self-discovery while elevating their voices was Maude Stephany’s mission when they founded the Trans Artivist Project (TAP) this Pride Month.

Maude is a gender-fluid, pansexual and polyamorous academic, author, artist, and performer. Their inspiration for TAP came about from their friends and family, including Maude’s wife Katrina Stephany.

Katrina told The Ontarion she has always loved to paint, draw, and perform. However, she denied this part of herself for several years.

“It was as if I wasn’t allowing myself to feel joy, to be happy because I couldn’t be myself,” said Katrina.

It was shortly after she came out as a trans woman that she rediscovered her creative passion and began to explore it more.

First, she explored through movement — Zumba, burlesque, and belly dancing. Afterwards it was on stage performing in The Vagina Monologues for over two years. Next, it was paint.

“A little while ago, Maude learned how to do paint pours, and showed me how to do them too,” said Katrina. “After doing one of my own, I was hooked.”

As an avid reader of trans mental health works, and with experience in body-centered therapy, Maude wanted to create a program that combined art with community and therapy, according to their website. This became the foundation for TAP’s focus on artivism.

“Artivism is using art in an activist way, and using it to affect change to support people,” Maude told The Ontarion.

“We are using different mediums and different projects to support trans individuals and also to elevate trans voices and experiences … By doing that, it creates, we hope, a change in how people are perceived.”

For Katrina, artivism is as internal as it is external. She creates so she can speak to her personal experiences and make them visible to others.

“This process is partly for me, to help me work through my experiences, but also to raise awareness of the trans experience for the wider community,” said Katrina.

TAP uses artivism by providing opportunities for trans folks to share their artwork with the wider community and even have their pieces monetized if they so choose.

In the Acrylic Paint Pour Party hosted by TAP on June 12 in association with Guelph Pride, participants were given the option to have their art sold on the Trans Artivist Collective, an online store founded by TAP. There, art is featured on various kinds of merchandise such as clothing or household items. Profits then directly support TAP and the trans artists who submitted their work.

According to a 2020 2SLGBTQI workplace inclusion report, trans individuals in Canada are more likely to face work-related challenges that can negatively impact their finances, health, and safety.  Due to their sexuality and/or gender they may experience barriers to hiring, wage cuts, and workplace harassment.

“Income instability is a huge problem because there is so much discrimination, so what we hope TAP will end up helping [are] trans individuals, especially trans artists.”

As TAP’s very first event, the virtual activity had a “full house” of 58 attendees. Katrina explained that the trans community is historically discriminated against when it comes to events, so having one specifically catered towards the community made more trans folks show up.

Subsequently, many of those who participated were satisfied with their work.

Event participant Abigail Kays told The Ontarion she had never done paint pouring before, but she was happy with how her work turned out.

“It was really freeing to start painting with no plan in mind,” said Kays.

“The art happened as I made it, and both of the paintings that I did turned out so different even though I used the same colours and techniques. It was nice to find beauty in the random shapes that they made, and try to see what they looked like.”

In contrast to gender dysphoria, a concept commonly associated with the trans experience involving feelings of being in the wrong body or feeling like something is wrong, the activity’s theme was gender euphoria, a feeling of being right in one’s body and being able to claim “with conviction” one’s gender and pronouns.

“When you come to that realization of ‘Oh, this is who I am,’ whether it’s self-recognition or recognition from other people, that feeling [is] really positive and strong,” said Maude.

“It is something that is not reinforced enough, so I wanted to center in on that feeling and be able to go into that space mentally and emotionally, creating with that idea in mind.”

During the event, Maude encouraged participants to think of a time when they felt in tune with their body and harness that energy into their painting.

“I didn’t know how Maude was going to pull that part off, but their introductory meditation and re-centering in remembering that moment of euphoria when I recognized who and what I am, helped me come from a place of joy and celebration and create something that, when I look at it, I can come back to that joy,” said Katrina.

Supplies for party participants were provided by TAP and delivered by the southern Ontario division of Free Mom Hugs. Some items included were a canvas, five randomly selected acrylic paint colours, plastic cups, and stirring sticks.

Participants were encouraged to review various paint pour techniques, such as the swipe, ring swirl, or flip cup methods.

Maude noted that the event date was chosen as an homage to their mother Maryse who would have been 80 years old on June 12.

“She was a very loving person and very accepting, and I wanted to honour her on her birthday,” said Maude.

Kays told The Ontarion that she is grateful to TAP and Guelph Pride for offering opportunities to meet others like her in a safe space. She says these experiences have been very valuable.

Future activities by TAP include a Mutable Objects Photo Essay which will utilize photography and photo editing to visualize changing perspectives. Photograph submissions will be accepted until July 13. Additionally, TAP hopes to connect incarcerated trans folks with a vocal coach through its Trans Voices Project.

 

Please visit www.theontarion.com/submit to find out how you can share your work with The Ontarion.