My work explores creating new orientations of life as LGBTQ+ youth, with the discovery of being outside of straight orientation. My pieces are painted portraits of my loved ones in states of self-discovery, magic and desire as an act of storytelling. I work particularly with the gaze, using the gaze as an opportunity to invite the viewer to examine their own heart. I work with painting as a practice of unveiling specific magic and belief of possibility in the body that can go unnoticed to the untrained eye. Painting these portraits as an act of reinforcing the moment's existence, as proof of survival of LGBTQ+ joy and self.