Arts House Listening Program

(Self-portrait as both ape and topless woman) wild and tame, strong and vulnerable, stupid and smart, masc and femme, masking and unable to mask: I can’t make a world without discrimination, I can’t end all ableism, I CAN draw a picture that holds us in the face of everything. An A3 drawing set on bright orange paper of a female-appearing person being embraced by an ape. She is shirtless, breasts bare, with one breast being pressed against her body through their hug. She is statuesque in her consistent orange palette, her eyes without pupils, and the way her hair looks carved as opposed to organic. At her hips there looks to be the tops of peach pants, a belt running through its loops. She faces the viewer. The ape snuggles into her crevasses, wrapped around her left side. The left arm of the ape crosses her body, resting on the bottom of her shoulder blades. Her hand is lightly warped around its arm. Her other hand is visible through the fingertips that curve around the ape’s hunched back as she ret