#astrotwitch

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Stunning Australian street art shows the world the true face of LGBT people

Australian street artist Astrotwitch launched “Queer the Streets“ last year based on the idea that, as they wrote on Tumblr, all the “queer community needs is simply for more people to know that they exist.” Their works are incredible — and every one has the potential to create a change.

Queering the streets with some detailed stickers. This past month has been pretty full of other, non-street art, stuff. So I have only had time to make small paintings. Here’s a number of stickers that are queering up the Fitzroy & Collingwood neighborhoods.

Safe Schools  is a program that helps address and reduce bullying of queer and trans children. It was reviewed by the government and found to be “outstanding” and “necessary”. Despite this the Aussie government cut it, because you know people are homophobic and transphobic. This is very upsetting. No matter where on the political spectrum you are, how can somebody be okay with bullying towards children? 

The painting was pasted in Collingwood. Its based on a photo of the super gorgeous Arisce Wanzer Official.

GrrlFest “Provocatuer” Party I’m always happy to be part of events by Grrlfest. The organize art and music festivals featuring female artist and performers, and recently started a monthly party called Provocateur. If you’re in Melbourne, and you follow this page, you definitely have to go to their next event! They invited me to be a part of the first party, so I installed this wall of portraits of queer babes! I thought it was a great opportunity to show some of the ideas I’d been working on. There’s even a painting of Grrlfest organizer Amy Broomstick in the mix.

You can keep up with Grrlfest’s productions on their twitter.

Our love is just as real. Pasted in Fitzroy, VIC. I was very excited by the supreme court ruling in the US recently. Congratulations to all my friends up in the US! I, personally, do not view marriage equality as purely symbolic. Anyone who has tried to move internationally with a partner, or anyone who has tried to adopt children understands that being married makes the process so much easier. So its a big deal that has real impacts for many people’s lives. But here in Australia, along with many other countries, marriage equality still does not exist.  I really have never understood why this is such a big deal to straight people (other than the basic fear of things that are different than them). When queer people fall in love its the same basic chemical reaction in their brains as with straight people.

The model for this painting is the mega-fierce artist Marian Machismo. Who lives and works here in Melbourne. 

Contain Ya’self I had a lot of fun painting this portrait of queer porn icon Courtney Trouble. The painting is at Contain Ya’self an initiative being run by a couple rad queers babes that will be part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2015. If you love hanging out in creative spaces and/or supporting queer artists you should go spend some time over there. The space is made of two shipping containers. One serves as a creative space and art studio; the second is being used as a gallery. If you’re in Melbourne and you need a place to hold an event you should contact them. The containers are located behind Footscray Art Centre.

Being ourselves My shows for this year are over, and I’m happy to get back to single paintings for the streets and for people. I’m also happy that the last show is over I can start experimenting with my style a little (hence the messy dots in the background). The text on this painting reads, “This is not for anyone else. It is just us being ourselves.” I guess this is cryptic enough to mean anything to anybody. ;) But I think its appropriate for queer expression. People often forget, or don’t understand, that when people express themselves against mainstream expectations its usually just because the person feels comfortable in that expression.

The painting is based on a photo of the super gorgeous Chelsea Poe. Check out all there stuff, and show them some mega-love!

GRRL FEST: Grrl fest is a music and arts festival featuring only female identified performers here in Melbourne. The festival is in its third year, and I believe they are already planning a 4th event. I was very happy to help decorate the main hall of the festival with some of my paintings.

The photos are reblogged from the GrrlFestand from the lovely (and pictured) Lexi Laphor.

There’s Too Much Sexist Street Art A certain amount of street art paints women in a not very empowering way. Often women are painted with hyper-sexualized, unrealistic body shapes (over-sized lips, boobs, butts, and tiny waists). This always bothers me. There are so many degrading images of women in advertisements scattered around the city and on tv. Its sad to me when artists do the same exact thing. Personally, I’d rather see women painted as if they are people with their own identity, rather than simply a decorative element. 

These paintings are based on 2 bad ass queer feminists that I’ve drawn inspiration from. I hope you enjoy them.  xx

Mural at Minus18 I spent this past week painting a mural at Minus18 a organization for queer youth in Melbourne. As part of the Queer the Streets project I wanted to decorate queer friendly places. The people I interacted with at minus18 were all lovely, friendly people. The painting is based on portraits from the Identity Project. I wanted it to be as inclusive as possible so instead of only writing the identities of those pictured, as I normally do, I wrote all the labels used in the Identity Project as a tag style background, and then painted the mural on top of that.

We can speak for ourselves, thanks. I’m in full show preparation these days so its hard to get large pieces out in public. So I made paste of a small practice piece I did of writer Parker Molloy. One of the great things that’s happening in the trans community is the establishment of a number of voices that are speaking up and adding this perspective to the world. Molloy is doing great work on speaking out on issues of trans, lgbt and women’s rights.  See her writings here. 

Portrait of Islan Nettles Last year Islan Nettles was beaten to death outside a police service area in New York. Here murderer was charged with a misdemeanor for assault. Transgender women face extreme rates of discrimination, and for trans women of colour that often comes in the form of violence. The murder rate for trans women of colour is insanely high compared to the rest of the general population, and it is not uncommon that the murderers go free. This is outrageous. Its a sad part of our society, and needs to be dealt with in some way.

Read more about Islan Nettles story, and the legal situation around violence against trans people in this article by Parker Molloy