Featured Cover Art: “Theo”
Title: Theo
Oil on panel
48″ x 36″
2024
About "Theo":
This is Theo, he is the trans sibling that I have known the longest, he is also the youngest. We have known each other for a decade, since he was just seven years old.
From Theo: “I’m going to college in the fall for creative writing, with the dream of writing a novel centered around trans young adults to provide representation and hope for our community. I continue to be a big dog lover of course and am always down for cuddles with all the biggest breeds. I am wrapping up my high school theatre career with one final spring musical that opens March 1st. My ideal day would be spent ambling around small businesses with a friend or even smearing on some eye makeup and going to a local punk show.”
Finishing this painting coincided with the murder of Nex Benedict. I keep thinking of Nex, the softness of youth on their face. Precious. They look so familiar, like I know them, recognize them, am them. I was still hiding at the age that Nex was living their truth, that Theo lives his truth. everything in my life has been and is filtered through my Transness, a pre-requisite of surviving in this society. To be ever so cautious, all the time.
Artist Statement:
My work highlights the subtleties of the trans*-queer experience, nuances often denied to us by the media, politicians, and social narratives. The stories told about us are primitive and devoid of complexity. In reality, we are in constant, quiet communication through the small, shared moments of our daily lives. These binding rituals can be found in the flick of a syringe, the tenderness of a scar massage, or the vibration of a tattoo gun against the skin.
Tricia Hersey, an activist and artist, says that the body is a site of liberation. This sentiment inspires my depiction of these figures whose bodies are replaced by sky or earth. The infinite vastness of the sky symbolizes ultimate freedom, while the earth represents what is most precious. I paint my peers in the way they deserve, a way they are not often portrayed. As such, these paintings become a wish, a safe space for myself and other trans folks to exist. I release these images into the world as an act of reclamation.
BR is also excited to feature Theo Halladay's hybrid piece, "255 Days of Shedding" in Issue 91.
Taylor Maroney is a queer, trans-nonbinary artist residing in Providence, RI. They graduated with a MFA in painting from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2020, after earning a BFA in 2012 from the University of New Hampshire. As of 2020 Taylor has been the recipient of two Elizabeth Greenshield International Grants and in 2017, UMass Dartmouth awarded them the Distinguished Artist Fellowship to study in the MFA program. They have shown their work both nationally and internationally. A figurative artist since the beginning, Taylor uses the human form to create visual markers for abstract social constructions and phenomena specifically in regard to race and gender within the United States.
