Steven Potter
Organizers Wendi Kent (lower left) and Alaura Seidl (upper rigth) work with youth artists on the mural.
In addition to the usual challenges of being a teenager, Piper Gilkison must also navigate life as a transgender person.
“I deal with a lot of people that don’t understand what it is [to be transgender] or what I’m supposed to look like,” says the 16-year-old. “It’s hard to find beauty in yourself in a world where they tell you you’re not beautiful,” says the teen.
When attending James Madison Memorial High School, Gilkison faced “a lot of microaggressions and people acting like I just don’t exist” before transferring to Malcolm Shabazz City High School, an alternative for students who don’t feel they fit in at traditional high schools.
In and out of school, Gilkison spends a lot of time drawing, making sculptures and writing poetry. “When you’re in a marginalized community, you have to find a creative way to express yourself,” says Gilkison.
Through a new mural project, Gilkison and other transgender and queer teens aim to send a message that affirms their self-worth and beauty.
The teens have begun work on a 10-by-40-foot public art installation, organized by the ArtWrite Collective. The mural, on the side of the gallery Art In (1444 E Washington Ave.), will greet drivers and others traveling toward the Capitol where East Washington Avenue crosses the Yahara River. The initial design work and canvas preparation began earlier this month; the group hopes to have the mural mounted and installed by the end of the year.
The mural design will feature a dark starscape background with the phrase “you are beautiful” written in connected, cursive letters that will blend through a rainbow of colors. Each of the letters will feature images, such as pictures of animals, shapes and local landmarks.
“[The ‘you are beautiful’] mural can be interpreted by all audiences and a specific group as well,” says Alaura Seidl, one of the project organizers and an artist with ArtWrite, a group that works to merge activism with art.
Wendi Kent, another ArtWrite artist, hopes the mural sparks curiosity among people who walk or drive by. “[We’re hoping] that people who may not be sensitive to LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] issues see it and wonder why it’s here and who it speaks to,” says Kent. “And for the people that need to see it and hear it the most, it’s there.”
Kent pushed the idea of a mural after being surprised by the lack of public art in Madison, especially when compared to her hometown of Austin, Texas, known for its many public art displays and murals. “I moved here in 2010, and one of the first things I noticed was there was almost no street art,” she says, adding that she hopes the mural becomes a photo destination like the “I love you so much” message on the side of Jo’s Coffee in Austin.
The mural will also serve as a memorial to Madison native and East High grad Brendan Scanlon, better known as street artist SOLVE, who was part of a street art collective that put up similar “you are beautiful” murals around Chicago. The artist was murdered after a party at his Chicago home in 2008.
Scanlon’s father, Bill, believes his son would have approved of this project, saying, “Brendan thought blank walls, like the one the YAB mural will be on, to be unnecessarily ugly. He wanted to have art applied or apply it himself to them to displace the ugliness and provide beauty.”
Street art featuring “you are beautiful” began as a personal project started by Chicago artist Matthew Hoffman back in 2002 and has since spread worldwide. Similar murals have popped up in Illinois, New York, Texas and California, and also in Italy, among other places. Small metallic stickers with the slogan can be found around downtown Madison, and Gilkison says she’s seen many inside the Shabazz school. ArtWrite has been working with Hoffman to create Madison’s mural, learning about logistics and what’s worked best in other cities.
Seidl and Kent say the mural, which will cost about $6,000 to complete, has received funding support through a UW-Madison art department grant as well as from the Madison Arts Commission, the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association, Artist & Craftsman Supply and individual donors. The organizers have been meeting with planners with the city’s urban design commission and hope to secure final approval to mount the mural on the exterior of the building.
Although the mural is still in its early stages, it’s already accomplishing the desired effect.
“I always wanted space to create something that meant a lot to me and that let me also express my identity,” says Gilkison. “This is a chance to help other openly queer people feel beautiful and help myself too.”
