This five-piece series is titled, “Friends of Dorothy”, and was painted in 2015 using acrylics on canvas. These brightly coloured, stylized paintings are portraits of the friends and lovers of the artist, don trupp, lost to HIV/AIDS between 1987 and 2001. With each portrait, don trupp endeavoured to capture the ‘spark’ that made the lives of these men- his friends and his lovers, momentous and unique.  

The Pre-Summit Event, “An Open Intergenerational Dialogue on HIV History” presented by the “HIV In My Day” research team inspired the curation of don trupp’s five-piece portrait collection.  

“I remember the panic and terror we felt within the gay community during the early 1980s before science had identified the mysterious disease affecting and killing gay men. By 2001, all my friends and past lovers had died from HIV/AIDS; I still, to this day, do not know how I escaped. The stigma, judgment, and discrimination I witnessed and experienced first-hand from the doctors, hospital staff, nurses and the public at large were debilitating. While HIV/AIDS research, awareness, and education continue to improve on a societal level, inequality is still prominent and widespread in our healthcare system today.”  (don trupp, September 2021) 

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically changed how much of our society and our healthcare system now operates, and these changes seem to be somewhat permanent. don trupp’s portrait collection speaks to the theme of Summit 2021: Disrupt and Reconstruct as art is often disruptive.   

“Art can make you rethink your understanding of society by highlighting previously hidden inequalities. Art communicates; it can tell an objective story. When created with an objective purpose (a political message), art can become a vehicle for societal change paving a blank slate on which societal norms can be reconstructed.  Inequality and discrimination within our healthcare system were all too alive and well during my friends’ battles with HIV/AIDS. Being given this opportunity to have my portrait series included in the disrupting and reconstructing of our healthcare system, helping to shatter the intolerance, prejudice, and inequity we experience within the GBT2Q community, is an honour.” (don trupp, September 2021).

don trupp was born on July 5th, 1953, in Stonewall, Manitoba. It was at the young age of five when don began his love affair with art. In 1972, don graduated from the Commercial Art Program at Victoria Composite High School in Edmonton, Alberta. The Yukon Territories is where don trupp established himself as an Artist, using acrylics on canvas, pen & ink, and watercolours.  

don trupp exhibited his works in seven solo art shows and three group gallery exhibitions between 1979 and 1983. Three of don’s solo exhibitions sold out, with his first selling out in ninety minutes. don trupp’s artworks are held in private collections across Canada, the US, Scotland, Germany, and Japan. 

don trupp was unconventional to say the least; as an openly gay man, don refused to conform to the societal conventions of marriage and parenthood. don married Teri Arcovio, his partner-in-life in November of 1980, and fathered two children, Cerise Dio-enne on April 14th, 1984, and Jon-Selby Zachariah on November 24th, 1986.  

don moved to Nelson, British Columbia in 2017. He truly believed that “the Kootenays facilitate[d] the quirkiness of [his] eccentricities” and presented him with the opportunity to experiment with 2D and 3D mixed media paintings that explored his struggle to find a ‘happy medium’ to which he could fit his identity into. don trupp died unexpectedly on October 5th, 2021, in his home from a heart attack.

Dimensions: 8” x 10” 

Price: $75 + shipping ($300 + shipping if purchasing the whole collection of 5) 

To purchase this art piece, please email [email protected] and put YOUR NAME_ARTIST_ ARTWORK in the subject line. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities.

Ryan’s piece, “(Dis)comfort”, is a mixed media artwork utilizing digital photography, printed media, and embroidery. Ryan was curious in exploring the intense feelings of rupture and repair visually, symbolically, and practically in the artmaking process. The felt-sense experience of piercing the image causing disruption but leading into the reparative process of mending the image into something new. This process of rupture and repair is paralleled in the presentation, “Choosing Love at the End of the World: Social Collapse, Conflict Resolution and Queer Resilience” by Kai Cheng Thom and in the theme of the 2021 Summit: Disrupt and Reconstruct.  

Kai Cheng Thom brought attention to the reality that all of us, as human beings, will harm and have harmed one another. They raised the question: “How does one stay in community with individuals who have harmed us, we may have harmed or harmed the people we know?” Ryan reflected on this question and explored how an individual, no matter the role in the situation, may react, respond, or internalize experiences of harm.  

Ryan visually investigated the duality of harm directed towards and within the Queer community. Symbolization is found in the plants chosen (perceptions: harmful or helpful), how an individual/community proceeds forward and focus on the reparative process to find growth/meaning.   

Ryan O’Lewis (he/him) is a queer, (dis)abled, Canadian artist currently residing on the unceded traditional lands of the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. His art practice explores sexuality, (dis)ability and mental health. More specifically the intricate relationship one has with themselves and how they experience spaces with visible and invisible marginalized identities. Ryan’s mediums are expansive as he aims to push the boundaries of traditional, two-dimensional media into the realm of sculpture. 

Dimensions: 16” x 24”  

Price: $500 + shipping 

To purchase this art piece, please email [email protected] and put YOUR NAME_ARTIST_ ARTWORK in the subject line. Parts of the proceed will be donated back to HIM and CBRC towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities.   

“Finding the Path” is a journey through many types of art. The painting is created in a mixture of acrylic, heavy body acrylic, and sculpting medium. The journey is the creation of the art which was entirely videotaped with some commentary.    

Although many presentations influenced me, I believe it is most relating to the experience of gender and sexual identity and the self-discovery of one’s life journey. Many speakers had incredible journeys that they related, of understanding and struggle, of hardship and trying to communicate. Jack Saddleback’s presentation ”Mamiskow: Finding a Way for Two-Spirit Resiliency “was very strongly on my mind as I faced my own journey through art.    

In my artwork process, I talked through my thoughts on my own identity and tried to understand the world around me and why it was so hard to find a path to follow. I worked from no set landscape, and no concept, so that I could bring forth an authentic self-discovery onto the canvas and allow my spirit to use imagery of its own design.    

I can think of no better disruption and reconstruction than tearing apart my mental journey on identity and reconstructing it into art.    

My name is John Syd Waynest, aka JS Waynest or Jayse, pronouns he/him. I am a multi-disciplinary artist and general storyteller.  I am inspired to trying new experiences and ways to make art, often at the detriment of specialization or focus.  I’m a trans-man who is trying to make sure his life has meaning in its journey and can inspire others.  I have lived some decades now, and if I have any wisdom, it is that authenticity is a type of beauty. Being open about my lived identity is a new kind of beauty in my life and that has enhanced my art. 

Dimensions: 30” x 40”  

Price: $600 + shipping 

To purchase this art piece, please email [email protected] and put YOUR NAME_ARTIST_ ARTWORK in the subject line. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities.

The painting that I created for this years summit is entitled ‘Goddess of Love, Under the Sea’. It is directly inspired by Kai Cheng Thom’s riveting creation myth about the origin of love. I found Kai Cheng’s talk to be interesting in general, but I was particularly enthralled and amazed at her incredible storytelling abilities, so much so that I could actually vividly see the story illustrated in my mind’s eye. I was particularly taken by the part where the Goddess of Love is asleep in her garden under the sea and the Sun God and Moon Goddess being jealous of how she has infected the human race have come down to put a stop to her reign of Love. The Moon Goddess puts her to sleep with her vile of tears and then the Sun God comes down and rips her to pieces. This to me was a shocking metaphor for global warming. They then spread her pieces all over the earth until she becomes one with the plants and the animals. That‘s why nature is so full of love and we, as humans, are always looking for it. Nature is the source and we have destroyed the majority of it. There are very few truly natural places left in this world and the hearts of many human beings are cold with apathy. Kai Cheng‘s story was a perfect metaphor for our current state of being and the pure simplicity of the solution to all our problems which has always been and will always be love. And this doesn’t have to mean romantic love by any means. Love of nature, love of animals, love of children, love of women, of queers, of people of all colours, of mothers, and family and weirdos and outcasts. There is so much love that we desperately need right now. And so, I illustrated the moment where the Moon Goddess was pouring her vile of tears into the Goddess of Love’s mouth in her garden under the sea as the vengeful sun god (aka the patriarchy) comes down to destroy her and rip her to shreds. This painting is acrylic on canvas, 24×30, and is available for purchase from my shop at www.shannonlester.com/online-store for $1728.00 (plus shipping). A portion of the proceeds from this painting will be donated to BC COMMA HIM. 

My name is Shannon Lester aka Sasha Zamolodchikova and I am a visual artist and drag performer. I am genderqueer and have no preferred pronouns (he/she/they are all fine by me). I work primarily in acrylic on canvas, and I am very much inspired by the human experience as it relates to nature.  

In the past my work has explored social constructs relating to gender and sexuality and while I continue to explore these topics, I have expanded to include a dialogue about our current global environmental crisis. I am particularly interested in how we, as a human race, have seemed to stop caring about important topics such as animal rights and nature conservation while we continue to rage on with discussions and debates about human rights and identity. We are now emerging from a nearly two-year global pandemic that in my opinion is very much connected to our destruction of the natural world. I received my MFA in Interdisciplinary Painting and Drag Performance in 2013 from UBC-O. I am currently based in Kelowna on the unceded territory of the Syilx people. 

Dimensions: 24” x 30”  

Price: $1728 + shipping 

To purchase this art piece, please go directly to www.shannonlester.com/online-store. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities. 

don trupp was born on July 5th, 1953, in Stonewall, Manitoba. It was at the young age of five when don began his love affair with art. In 1972, don graduated from the Commercial Art Program at Victoria Composite High School in Edmonton, Alberta. The Yukon Territories is where don trupp established himself as an Artist, using acrylics on canvas, pen & ink, and watercolours.  

don trupp exhibited his works in seven solo art shows and three group gallery exhibitions between 1979 and 1983. Three of don’s solo exhibitions sold out, with his first selling out in ninety minutes. don trupp’s artworks are held in private collections across Canada, the US, Scotland, Germany, and Japan. 

don trupp was unconventional to say the least; as an openly gay man, don refused to conform to the societal conventions of marriage and parenthood. don married Teri Arcovio, his partner-in-life in November of 1980, and fathered two children, Cerise Dio-enne on April 14th, 1984, and Jon-Selby Zachariah on November 24th, 1986.  

don moved to Nelson, British Columbia in 2017. He truly believed that “the Kootenays facilitate[d] the quirkiness of [his] eccentricities” and presented him with the opportunity to experiment with 2D and 3D mixed media paintings that explored his struggle to find a ‘happy medium’ to which he could fit his identity into. don trupp died unexpectedly on October 5th, 2021, in his home from a heart attack.  

Dimensions: 8” x 10” 

Price: $75 + shipping ($300 + shipping if purchasing the whole collection of 5) 

To purchase this art piece, please email [email protected] and put YOUR NAME_ARTIST_ ARTWORK in the subject line. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities. 

My written piece, “On Label”, uses storytelling to examine tensions and dichotomies. I wasn’t able to choose which presentations I wanted to take in so ended up watching or participating in 13 different workshops, presentations and keynotes. The piece uses fragments that tie in drug user agency, psychedelic healing, decolonization, neurodivergence, language barriers and art/science/academic elitism. The piece itself dancing between personal narrative, journalistic reporting and editorial candor presents itself as an organism, complex and multifaceted. In this way, it represents the summit, its participants, and our movements. I am grateful especially to the Indigenous and racialized presenters (namely Jack Saddleback, jaye simpson, Kai Cheng Thom and Rinaldo Wallcott) for not only bringing their perspectives and brilliance to the space, but also in their delivery, each in their own right, challenging the frameworks and demonstrating visionary alternatives to the colonial assignments’ expectations. This piece explores the assigned, criminalized, pathologized, and expected in tension and contrast with the ancient, transcendent, pleasure driven, interconnected, and liberatory. 

Kori Doty is a non-binary, trans, neurodivergent community educator based on Lekwungan Territory in the home of the Equimalt, Songhees and WSANEC first nations. Their biological ancestry is primarily made up of working class Northern European settlers and they also claim cultural lineage of psychedelics pioneers and queer rebels. They write things on the internet (and have since Geocities) as well as occasionally for longer slower formats, like the anthology they co-edited which has finally made it to print.  They specialize in gender and sexuality, harm reduction and psychedelics, and have been guiding conversations on these topics as a volunteer and staff of many ASOs and community based agencies over the last 13 years. These days they are just starting to come out of the all consuming project that was raising their daughter to be school aged- and now with the spaciousness of kindergarten, returning to ‘public life’. They are also training in somatic sex education. You can find them at koridoty.com, subscribe to their Patreon at patreon.com/koridoty. 

Even though this artwork is not for sale, you can still support this artist through tips. To support Kori, please go to patreon.com/koridoty directly. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities.   

This five-piece series is titled, “Friends of Dorothy”, and was painted in 2015 using acrylics on canvas. These brightly coloured, stylized paintings are portraits of the friends and lovers of the artist, don trupp, lost to HIV/AIDS between 1987 and 2001. With each portrait, don trupp endeavoured to capture the ‘spark’ that made the lives of these men- his friends and his lovers, momentous and unique.  

The Pre-Summit Event, “An Open Intergenerational Dialogue on HIV History” presented by the “HIV In My Day” research team inspired the curation of don trupp’s five-piece portrait collection.  

“I remember the panic and terror we felt within the gay community during the early 1980s before science had identified the mysterious disease affecting and killing gay men. By 2001, all my friends and past lovers had died from HIV/AIDS; I still, to this day, do not know how I escaped. The stigma, judgment, and discrimination I witnessed and experienced first-hand from the doctors, hospital staff, nurses and the public at large were debilitating. While HIV/AIDS research, awareness, and education continue to improve on a societal level, inequality is still prominent and widespread in our healthcare system today.”  (don trupp, September 2021) 

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically changed how much of our society and our healthcare system now operates, and these changes seem to be somewhat permanent. don trupp’s portrait collection speaks to the theme of Summit 2021: Disrupt and Reconstruct as art is often disruptive.   

“Art can make you rethink your understanding of society by highlighting previously hidden inequalities. Art communicates; it can tell an objective story. When created with an objective purpose (a political message), art can become a vehicle for societal change paving a blank slate on which societal norms can be reconstructed.  Inequality and discrimination within our healthcare system were all too alive and well during my friends’ battles with HIV/AIDS. Being given this opportunity to have my portrait series included in the disrupting and reconstructing of our healthcare system, helping to shatter the intolerance, prejudice, and inequity we experience within the GBT2Q community, is an honour.” (don trupp, September 2021).

don trupp was born on July 5th, 1953, in Stonewall, Manitoba. It was at the young age of five when don began his love affair with art. In 1972, don graduated from the Commercial Art Program at Victoria Composite High School in Edmonton, Alberta. The Yukon Territories is where don trupp established himself as an Artist, using acrylics on canvas, pen & ink, and watercolours.  

don trupp exhibited his works in seven solo art shows and three group gallery exhibitions between 1979 and 1983. Three of don’s solo exhibitions sold out, with his first selling out in ninety minutes. don trupp’s artworks are held in private collections across Canada, the US, Scotland, Germany, and Japan. 

don trupp was unconventional to say the least; as an openly gay man, don refused to conform to the societal conventions of marriage and parenthood. don married Teri Arcovio, his partner-in-life in November of 1980, and fathered two children, Cerise Dio-enne on April 14th, 1984, and Jon-Selby Zachariah on November 24th, 1986.  

don moved to Nelson, British Columbia in 2017. He truly believed that “the Kootenays facilitate[d] the quirkiness of [his] eccentricities” and presented him with the opportunity to experiment with 2D and 3D mixed media paintings that explored his struggle to find a ‘happy medium’ to which he could fit his identity into. don trupp died unexpectedly on October 5th, 2021, in his home from a heart attack. 

Dimensions: 8” x 10” 

Price: $75 + shipping ($300 + shipping if purchasing the whole collection of 5) 

To purchase this art piece, please email [email protected] and put YOUR NAME_ARTIST_ ARTWORK in the subject line. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities. 

This current work is inspired by Francisco Ibáñez-Carras’s 2021 CRBC conference presentation The Normal that Never Was. Ibáñez-Carras points to the white washing of HIV research which often does not pay homage to the lives lost prior to the mainstreaming of HIV research. For this reason, it was important for this work to reference the history of activism that fades from cultural memory. Ibanez-Carras makes some strong points in his conference presentation regarding how queerness has been mainstreamed by the heteronormative and neoliberal legitimization of HIV research. He states it is a survival mechanism so that the research could occur in the first place. In reflecting on the changing players of HIV activism and research in North America, Jesse brings forward the imagery of AIDs activism of the 80s and early 90s. This all overlaps with questions of how the continued institutionalization of HIV separates research from its historic communities, how do we layer the history of an epidemic on to the history of oppressed cultures, and how do we engage in the new realities of HIV activism in the face of so much change. 

Jesse Blanchard is a visual artist. Early on Jesse began making comics, which were crudely drawn and inspired by the underground comics made in the 70s. Their comics were very personal and overly familiar. This approach to creating has extended into a larger artistic practice that now encompasses large paintings, weird videos and geometric faux fur blobs. Working within these mediums are an attempt to make art playful, to bring some joy and humour into the art object, in spite of the darkness their work often deals with. 

This five-piece series is titled, “Friends of Dorothy”, and was painted in 2015 using acrylics on canvas. These brightly coloured, stylized paintings are portraits of the friends and lovers of the artist, don trupp, lost to HIV/AIDS between 1987 and 2001. With each portrait, don trupp endeavoured to capture the ‘spark’ that made the lives of these men- his friends and his lovers, momentous and unique.  

The Pre-Summit Event, “An Open Intergenerational Dialogue on HIV History” presented by the “HIV In My Day” research team inspired the curation of don trupp’s five-piece portrait collection.  

“I remember the panic and terror we felt within the gay community during the early 1980s before science had identified the mysterious disease affecting and killing gay men. By 2001, all my friends and past lovers had died from HIV/AIDS; I still, to this day, do not know how I escaped. The stigma, judgment, and discrimination I witnessed and experienced first-hand from the doctors, hospital staff, nurses and the public at large were debilitating. While HIV/AIDS research, awareness, and education continue to improve on a societal level, inequality is still prominent and widespread in our healthcare system today.”  (don trupp, September 2021) 

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically changed how much of our society and our healthcare system now operates, and these changes seem to be somewhat permanent. don trupp’s portrait collection speaks to the theme of Summit 2021: Disrupt and Reconstruct as art is often disruptive.   

“Art can make you rethink your understanding of society by highlighting previously hidden inequalities. Art communicates; it can tell an objective story. When created with an objective purpose (a political message), art can become a vehicle for societal change paving a blank slate on which societal norms can be reconstructed.  Inequality and discrimination within our healthcare system were all too alive and well during my friends’ battles with HIV/AIDS. Being given this opportunity to have my portrait series included in the disrupting and reconstructing of our healthcare system, helping to shatter the intolerance, prejudice, and inequity we experience within the GBT2Q community, is an honour.” (don trupp, September 2021).

don trupp was born on July 5th, 1953, in Stonewall, Manitoba. It was at the young age of five when don began his love affair with art. In 1972, don graduated from the Commercial Art Program at Victoria Composite High School in Edmonton, Alberta. The Yukon Territories is where don trupp established himself as an Artist, using acrylics on canvas, pen & ink, and watercolours.  

don trupp exhibited his works in seven solo art shows and three group gallery exhibitions between 1979 and 1983. Three of don’s solo exhibitions sold out, with his first selling out in ninety minutes. don trupp’s artworks are held in private collections across Canada, the US, Scotland, Germany, and Japan. 

don trupp was unconventional to say the least; as an openly gay man, don refused to conform to the societal conventions of marriage and parenthood. don married Teri Arcovio, his partner-in-life in November of 1980, and fathered two children, Cerise Dio-enne on April 14th, 1984, and Jon-Selby Zachariah on November 24th, 1986.  

don moved to Nelson, British Columbia in 2017. He truly believed that “the Kootenays facilitate[d] the quirkiness of [his] eccentricities” and presented him with the opportunity to experiment with 2D and 3D mixed media paintings that explored his struggle to find a ‘happy medium’ to which he could fit his identity into. don trupp died unexpectedly on October 5th, 2021, in his home from a heart attack. 

Dimensions: 8” x 10” 

Price: $75 + shipping ($300 + shipping if purchasing the whole collection of 5) 

To purchase this art piece, please email [email protected] and put YOUR NAME_ARTIST_ ARTWORK in the subject line. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities. 

Conflict Revolution consists of a 5:54 minute audio composition and a PDF file. Each object informs the other, and was collaged simultaneously. We do our work internally, inscrutably, and the resulting interaction is a fragmented glimpse.  

I interviewed four individuals who are transmasc or non-binary on the broad topic of conflict resolution. The recorded phone calls ranged in length from 40-50 minutes. These gentle conversations, some during nighttime walks or snowstorms, meandered through self-reflection; the resultant audio piece is a translation into a purposefully obscure artifact that marks the occurrence.  

That hidden performance, the space between the conversants – as well, the small amount of funds I was able to redistribute to support trans and non-binary people – through a small gesture, this is the “reconstruct” aspect of this project.  

I used Kai Cheng Thom’s presentation on social collapse, conflict resolution, and queer resiliency as inspiration – to generate conversations, to practice communication, to listen. I am disrupting the status quo by pointing to a private space but not inviting easy entry – this performance is not for a larger audience to access others’ thoughts. Not everything needs to be explained and understood to be respected. This is the crux of a new kind of conflict resolution. 

Contemplation as an act of subversion; Laurance Playford-Beaudet focuses on that which is overlooked or unnoticed, looking at the spaces-in-between-things. Simple acts of listening turn into dialogue/discussion with the material at hand. Research assistant, program coordinator, collaborator, listener, sound artist: Laurance moved to Texada Island from Vancouver, where he graduated from Emily Carr University in New Media and Sound Arts. He is currently collaborating on bringing diverse arts to the qathet region. www.playford-beaudet.com

Even though this artwork is not for sale, you can still support this artist through tips. To support Laurance, please e-transfer directly to Laurance’s email at [email protected]. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities.   

This five-piece series is titled, “Friends of Dorothy”, and was painted in 2015 using acrylics on canvas. These brightly coloured, stylized paintings are portraits of the friends and lovers of the artist, don trupp, lost to HIV/AIDS between 1987 and 2001. With each portrait, don trupp endeavoured to capture the ‘spark’ that made the lives of these men- his friends and his lovers, momentous and unique.  

The Pre-Summit Event, “An Open Intergenerational Dialogue on HIV History” presented by the “HIV In My Day” research team inspired the curation of don trupp’s five-piece portrait collection.  

“I remember the panic and terror we felt within the gay community during the early 1980s before science had identified the mysterious disease affecting and killing gay men. By 2001, all my friends and past lovers had died from HIV/AIDS; I still, to this day, do not know how I escaped. The stigma, judgment, and discrimination I witnessed and experienced first-hand from the doctors, hospital staff, nurses and the public at large were debilitating. While HIV/AIDS research, awareness, and education continue to improve on a societal level, inequality is still prominent and widespread in our healthcare system today.”  (don trupp, September 2021) 

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically changed how much of our society and our healthcare system now operates, and these changes seem to be somewhat permanent. don trupp’s portrait collection speaks to the theme of Summit 2021: Disrupt and Reconstruct as art is often disruptive.   

“Art can make you rethink your understanding of society by highlighting previously hidden inequalities. Art communicates; it can tell an objective story. When created with an objective purpose (a political message), art can become a vehicle for societal change paving a blank slate on which societal norms can be reconstructed.  Inequality and discrimination within our healthcare system were all too alive and well during my friends’ battles with HIV/AIDS. Being given this opportunity to have my portrait series included in the disrupting and reconstructing of our healthcare system, helping to shatter the intolerance, prejudice, and inequity we experience within the GBT2Q community, is an honour.” (don trupp, September 2021).

don trupp was born on July 5th, 1953, in Stonewall, Manitoba. It was at the young age of five when don began his love affair with art. In 1972, don graduated from the Commercial Art Program at Victoria Composite High School in Edmonton, Alberta. The Yukon Territories is where don trupp established himself as an Artist, using acrylics on canvas, pen & ink, and watercolours.  

don trupp exhibited his works in seven solo art shows and three group gallery exhibitions between 1979 and 1983. Three of don’s solo exhibitions sold out, with his first selling out in ninety minutes. don trupp’s artworks are held in private collections across Canada, the US, Scotland, Germany, and Japan. 

don trupp was unconventional to say the least; as an openly gay man, don refused to conform to the societal conventions of marriage and parenthood. don married Teri Arcovio, his partner-in-life in November of 1980, and fathered two children, Cerise Dio-enne on April 14th, 1984, and Jon-Selby Zachariah on November 24th, 1986.  

don moved to Nelson, British Columbia in 2017. He truly believed that “the Kootenays facilitate[d] the quirkiness of [his] eccentricities” and presented him with the opportunity to experiment with 2D and 3D mixed media paintings that explored his struggle to find a ‘happy medium’ to which he could fit his identity into. don trupp died unexpectedly on October 5th, 2021, in his home from a heart attack.

Dimensions: 8” x 10” 

Price: $75 + shipping ($300 + shipping if purchasing the whole collection of 5) 

To purchase this art piece, please email [email protected] and put YOUR NAME_ARTIST_ ARTWORK in the subject line. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities. 

‘dialogue.’ is a 2-channel video piece that takes on the form of a character exploration skit, written and performed by myself. This project was loosely inspired by the talk “Thinking Critically About Social Determinants of Health”. I resonated greatly with an audience question that came out of this discussion. The presenter was asked, “how do you feel pressured to perform masculinity from within the queer community?” This designation of ‘within’ that the question pointed towards opened up a lot of space for a nuanced discussion about social pressures that are created within queer communities to happen, while also acknowledging that these pressures to relate to larger societal constructs that effectively subjugate queer peoples. We talk a lot about how the outside pressures of heteronormativity make effeminate men feel the need to ‘pass’ or ‘hide’ in order to ensure safety, but it is rarely a discussion when these questions are pointed back towards the self.  

The story proposed within ‘dialogue.’ adopts the form of a stereotypical Grindr text conversation and plays with certain tropes from the online cruising simulation app. The skit explores how difficult emotions like internalized homophobia and femmephobia live within us and uncovers how these fears may inform the way we interact with other queer men seeking men and ultimately reflect back onto the ways we view ourselves. The character on the left is wearing make-up to nod towards a more effeminate representation, the right-hand character represents a more masculine trope. They performed simultaneously by myself to express a maximalist understanding of gender-fluidity. Here, the method of the 2-channel video is useful to explore how it is we situate ourselves within, apart, and outside of binary structures in order to understand that there may be more than one singular truth to our very multifaceted, queer, identities. Recently, I’ve been thinking about understanding the ‘they’ pronoun, not as one that is gender-neutral, but one that is gender plural.  

James Albers (they/he) is an emerging artist, curator, writer, organizer, and performer based on xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) territories. They are a recent graduate from the Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Their practice often takes a collaborative and community-oriented approach as they see this as a productive way to create new meaning from their lived experiences. James is concerned with exploring the queer potentials of revisionist histories and chooses to believe in the magic of fiction. Recently, James has been thinking through the truth that a perfect lie may hold. 

Even though this artwork is not for sale, you can still support this artist through tips. To support James, please e-transfer directly to James’ email at [email protected]om. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities.

“Nothing Set in Stone” is acrylic on 11 x 14 canvas board inspired by Kai Jacobsons” Gender Euphoria. What is it, and how do I get more of it?” As a trans man Gender Euphoria has been  a struggle for me. Gender as a fluid concept with both light and darkness and how gender  roles are applied inspired the colour palette with form drawn from introspection and  and discovering what makes me me and what makes me happy in my own skin.  

Every nonbinary person experiences their own journey with gender and where they  fall inside and outside the spectrum. ”Nothing Set in Stone” draws from Summit  2021 “Disrupt & Reconstruct” in embracing that nothing is ever black and white, red  or blue, male or female. Every experience is unique, and more people exist outside  classic and traditional images of masculine & feminine and breaking down those walls to include everyone in normal is vital.   

Dimensions: 11” x 17”

Price: $200 + shipping

To purchase this art piece, please email [email protected] and put YOUR NAME_ARTIST_ ARTWORK in the subject line. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities.

“flow/mend/meld” is a mixed media painting using acrylic and glass beads on canvas. The piece utilizes traditional beadwork but is largely contemporary and abstract in its use of colour and form. This is a statement on hope, connection, and growth for future systems of care that is rooted in my own reflections on growing up in care as a trans Indigenous youth.  

jaye simpson’s keynote “Let Me Speak: Providing Safe LGBTQ2+ Resources for Youth in and from Care” was the presentation that inspired this piece. They spoke of care not being the responsibility of children and envisioning a system where people would work together to support them instead. They spoke of this envisioning as, “moving like water, flowing, mending, and melding” which resonated with me and my experiences as a youth and the continued need for us to strike to do better and be better for those who need it.   

Disruption and reconstruction are represented in this piece through the theme of water. It is both removing the existing silos that have served as barriers while also replenishing what is left with continual movement, growth, and nourishment from all the sources it is connected to.  

Dimensions: 12” x 16”  

Price: $50 + shipping 

To purchase this art piece, please email [email protected] and put YOUR NAME_ARTIST_ ARTWORK in the subject line. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities.   

This piece, No Binaries No Boxes, is about the ways that research (and society in general) often ask us for information about our genders, without involving us in deciding how those questions are asked or what the answers are. This topic was discussed in the presentation by Mike Smith (from the AIDS Committee of Toronto), where there was a discussion of how gender might be inquired about to be more inclusive of trans and gender-diverse people.  

This art piece literally declares “no binaries no boxes” in reference to gender not being a pre-determined binary, and no boxes meaning that I/we don’t want to be put in a box – and also in reference to the tick boxes we are asked to check on forms or on research to ascribe a word to our genders.  

Cis man 

Cis woman 

Transgender man 

Transgender woman 

Non-binary 

I didn’t leave one box to go into another 

This piece challenges us to think beyond binary notions of gender as a society, and also to recognize the ways that sometimes even within 2SLGBTQIA+ community research we continue to put ourselves and our communities in boxes. Perhaps we as communities can disrupt normative ways of conducting research and relating to our communities and create new ways of being that embody the diversity and ingenuity of the communities we come from.  

Leopard slugs, to me, are iconic and embody so much of queer culture. From their fashion to their intertwined iridescent phalluses locked in an embrace of mutual pleasure and genetic information exchange, they are very queer creatures. Their mating ritual is beautiful, surprising, and transcends what many of us believed possible. They exist in their natural habitat in this print with mushrooms and ferns – equally fascinating fungi and flora. 

@TealPansyJewelry on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Etsy  

I am a multi-media artist working on issues of gender, desire, the body, and the sacred. I see my art as interlinked with my activism: this shows up as organizing artists’ fundraisers such as “Artists Against Pipelines”, a fundraiser for the Unist’ot’en and Gidimt’en. It also shows up through photography and personal story sharing about my life as a fat, disabled, queer and trans white person – which is about wanting to see the representation I did not see in the world when I was growing up and through my realization of my queerness and transness. I lived in Calgary till I was in my late 20s, and then moved to the West Coast, where I have friends and family. My roots trace to France (by way of 500 years in Quebec), Ireland, England, and Germany.   

I also make films with my husbear, and got a Canada Arts Council Grant in 2017 to attend the premier of our film Firkytoodle in Amsterdam at the TranScreen Film Festival. It has since screened in Germany, Canada and the US. My photography and writing have been published in children’s books, magazines, and zines. When I am not making art I work as a counsellor, and live in a small coastal town on so-called Vancouver Island on Stz’uminus, Penelakut, Cowichan and Snuneymuxw territories with my husbear, 5 chickens, and our dog Prada (who sometimes is mistaken for a chicken by the chickens).   

Dimensions: 8” x 10”  

Price: $25-$50 sliding scale + shipping 

To purchase this art piece*, please email [email protected] and put YOUR NAME_ARTIST_ ARTWORK in the subject line. Parts of the proceed will be donated towards strengthening the health and wellbeing of self-identified members from the gay, bi, queer men (GBQ) and gender diverse folks (GD) communities.   

Artist Note: The pearled blue section is iridescent 

Lares. Acrylic and mixed-media on cotton sheeting. Dimensions variable. 2021.  

I created a series of paintings in acrylic on cotton sheeting, adorned with false pearls, gems, and other ornaments. The series responds to multiple presentations: Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco’s The Normal that Never Was, as well as two panel presentations by Celeste Pang (Situating Long-Term Care as a Question of Housing and Homelessness) and Sarah Cooper (Pressure to be Masculine Associated with Poorer Mental Health Among Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Two-Spirit, Queer Men and Non-binary People).   

Where Ibáñez-Carrasco discussed the promise of pleasure as a research modality and community-building praxis, Pang offers the concept of agency in long-term care living and the idea of “decoration as placemaking”, as well as the potential future coming-together of inhabitants, designers, architects, and health workers; finally, Cooper analyzed the antagonistic effects of masculinity-pressures on the mental health of queer and trans people. Taken together, the presentations begin to co-articulate a provisional queer decoration politics—like the one José Esteban Muñoz outlines—which led me to conceptualize a series of cosmetic, multicolour pretty-paintings.  

The series is entitled Lares. Architects and designers are in some ways the guardian angels for those who inhabit the places the former construct—health workers, too. In truth, when inhabitants enact aesthetic and ergonomic, architectonic agency over their lifeworlds and rooms, beautiful exercises in buoyancy take place: “uplift”. This is not to trivialize such acts of decoration, adornment: we are doing away with the history of the asylum and prison when adornment is viewed not as an aberration but as a necessity for self-determined life-support systems.  

Etymologically, Lares refers to the entities that inhabit lived spaces—”topick gods”—and I wanted paintings that were angels for rooms, in which decorative and ornamental units combine into expansive profound space, virtual and sovereign space. This is what decorating as placemaking is: world-engineering and the manufacture of minimum survival conditions.  

The implications are profound when queers, architects, engineers and designers, health workers, and inhabitants meet. New forms of life, new living situations, new world designs are possible when this happens. I thought about rooms in a house and since paintings are said to be windows and objects, why not a room of unguent fluid plastic, luminous pearls and beguiling gems? How can queer inhabitants be empowered to exercise agency not only over the decorative aspects of their homes but also the design, construction, location, management, renewal, and flourishing of these spaces? What collaborations can be leveraged in order to achieve this? 

_{Dion Smith-Dokkie (he, they) is a painter and visual artist currently living in Vancouver on the unceded ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ. He is a recent graduate of the UBC MFA in Visual Arts program. Dion also holds degrees from the University of Victoria and Concordia University. His practice hones in on sea foam, skin, screens, clouds and skies, and interfaces of all sorts through the lens of painting, drawing, and video. He grew up in the Peace River region of British Columbia and Alberta and is a member of West Moberly First Nations.} 

Lares. Acrylic and mixed-media on cotton sheeting. Dimensions variable. 2021.  

I created a series of paintings in acrylic on cotton sheeting, adorned with false pearls, gems, and other ornaments. The series responds to multiple presentations: Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco’s The Normal that Never Was, as well as two panel presentations by Celeste Pang (Situating Long-Term Care as a Question of Housing and Homelessness) and Sarah Cooper (Pressure to be Masculine Associated with Poorer Mental Health Among Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Two-Spirit, Queer Men and Non-binary People).   

Where Ibáñez-Carrasco discussed the promise of pleasure as a research modality and community-building praxis, Pang offers the concept of agency in long-term care living and the idea of “decoration as placemaking”, as well as the potential future coming-together of inhabitants, designers, architects, and health workers; finally, Cooper analyzed the antagonistic effects of masculinity-pressures on the mental health of queer and trans people. Taken together, the presentations begin to co-articulate a provisional queer decoration politics—like the one José Esteban Muñoz outlines—which led me to conceptualize a series of cosmetic, multicolour pretty-paintings.  

The series is entitled Lares. Architects and designers are in some ways the guardian angels for those who inhabit the places the former construct—health workers, too. In truth, when inhabitants enact aesthetic and ergonomic, architectonic agency over their lifeworlds and rooms, beautiful exercises in buoyancy take place: “uplift”. This is not to trivialize such acts of decoration, adornment: we are doing away with the history of the asylum and prison when adornment is viewed not as an aberration but as a necessity for self-determined life-support systems.  

Etymologically, Lares refers to the entities that inhabit lived spaces—”topick gods”—and I wanted paintings that were angels for rooms, in which decorative and ornamental units combine into expansive profound space, virtual and sovereign space. This is what decorating as placemaking is: world-engineering and the manufacture of minimum survival conditions.  

The implications are profound when queers, architects, engineers and designers, health workers, and inhabitants meet. New forms of life, new living situations, new world designs are possible when this happens. I thought about rooms in a house and since paintings are said to be windows and objects, why not a room of unguent fluid plastic, luminous pearls and beguiling gems? How can queer inhabitants be empowered to exercise agency not only over the decorative aspects of their homes but also the design, construction, location, management, renewal, and flourishing of these spaces? What collaborations can be leveraged in order to achieve this? 

_{Dion Smith-Dokkie (he, they) is a painter and visual artist currently living in Vancouver on the unceded ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ. He is a recent graduate of the UBC MFA in Visual Arts program. Dion also holds degrees from the University of Victoria and Concordia University. His practice hones in on sea foam, skin, screens, clouds and skies, and interfaces of all sorts through the lens of painting, drawing, and video. He grew up in the Peace River region of British Columbia and Alberta and is a member of West Moberly First Nations.} 

Lares. Acrylic and mixed-media on cotton sheeting. Dimensions variable. 2021.  

I created a series of paintings in acrylic on cotton sheeting, adorned with false pearls, gems, and other ornaments. The series responds to multiple presentations: Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco’s The Normal that Never Was, as well as two panel presentations by Celeste Pang (Situating Long-Term Care as a Question of Housing and Homelessness) and Sarah Cooper (Pressure to be Masculine Associated with Poorer Mental Health Among Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Two-Spirit, Queer Men and Non-binary People).   

Where Ibáñez-Carrasco discussed the promise of pleasure as a research modality and community-building praxis, Pang offers the concept of agency in long-term care living and the idea of “decoration as placemaking”, as well as the potential future coming-together of inhabitants, designers, architects, and health workers; finally, Cooper analyzed the antagonistic effects of masculinity-pressures on the mental health of queer and trans people. Taken together, the presentations begin to co-articulate a provisional queer decoration politics—like the one José Esteban Muñoz outlines—which led me to conceptualize a series of cosmetic, multicolour pretty-paintings.  

The series is entitled Lares. Architects and designers are in some ways the guardian angels for those who inhabit the places the former construct—health workers, too. In truth, when inhabitants enact aesthetic and ergonomic, architectonic agency over their lifeworlds and rooms, beautiful exercises in buoyancy take place: “uplift”. This is not to trivialize such acts of decoration, adornment: we are doing away with the history of the asylum and prison when adornment is viewed not as an aberration but as a necessity for self-determined life-support systems.  

Etymologically, Lares refers to the entities that inhabit lived spaces—”topick gods”—and I wanted paintings that were angels for rooms, in which decorative and ornamental units combine into expansive profound space, virtual and sovereign space. This is what decorating as placemaking is: world-engineering and the manufacture of minimum survival conditions.  

The implications are profound when queers, architects, engineers and designers, health workers, and inhabitants meet. New forms of life, new living situations, new world designs are possible when this happens. I thought about rooms in a house and since paintings are said to be windows and objects, why not a room of unguent fluid plastic, luminous pearls and beguiling gems? How can queer inhabitants be empowered to exercise agency not only over the decorative aspects of their homes but also the design, construction, location, management, renewal, and flourishing of these spaces? What collaborations can be leveraged in order to achieve this? 

_{Dion Smith-Dokkie (he, they) is a painter and visual artist currently living in Vancouver on the unceded ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ. He is a recent graduate of the UBC MFA in Visual Arts program. Dion also holds degrees from the University of Victoria and Concordia University. His practice hones in on sea foam, skin, screens, clouds and skies, and interfaces of all sorts through the lens of painting, drawing, and video. He grew up in the Peace River region of British Columbia and Alberta and is a member of West Moberly First Nations.} 

Lares. Acrylic and mixed-media on cotton sheeting. Dimensions variable. 2021.  

I created a series of paintings in acrylic on cotton sheeting, adorned with false pearls, gems, and other ornaments. The series responds to multiple presentations: Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco’s The Normal that Never Was, as well as two panel presentations by Celeste Pang (Situating Long-Term Care as a Question of Housing and Homelessness) and Sarah Cooper (Pressure to be Masculine Associated with Poorer Mental Health Among Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Two-Spirit, Queer Men and Non-binary People).   

Where Ibáñez-Carrasco discussed the promise of pleasure as a research modality and community-building praxis, Pang offers the concept of agency in long-term care living and the idea of “decoration as placemaking”, as well as the potential future coming-together of inhabitants, designers, architects, and health workers; finally, Cooper analyzed the antagonistic effects of masculinity-pressures on the mental health of queer and trans people. Taken together, the presentations begin to co-articulate a provisional queer decoration politics—like the one José Esteban Muñoz outlines—which led me to conceptualize a series of cosmetic, multicolour pretty-paintings.  

The series is entitled Lares. Architects and designers are in some ways the guardian angels for those who inhabit the places the former construct—health workers, too. In truth, when inhabitants enact aesthetic and ergonomic, architectonic agency over their lifeworlds and rooms, beautiful exercises in buoyancy take place: “uplift”. This is not to trivialize such acts of decoration, adornment: we are doing away with the history of the asylum and prison when adornment is viewed not as an aberration but as a necessity for self-determined life-support systems.  

Etymologically, Lares refers to the entities that inhabit lived spaces—”topick gods”—and I wanted paintings that were angels for rooms, in which decorative and ornamental units combine into expansive profound space, virtual and sovereign space. This is what decorating as placemaking is: world-engineering and the manufacture of minimum survival conditions.  

The implications are profound when queers, architects, engineers and designers, health workers, and inhabitants meet. New forms of life, new living situations, new world designs are possible when this happens. I thought about rooms in a house and since paintings are said to be windows and objects, why not a room of unguent fluid plastic, luminous pearls and beguiling gems? How can queer inhabitants be empowered to exercise agency not only over the decorative aspects of their homes but also the design, construction, location, management, renewal, and flourishing of these spaces? What collaborations can be leveraged in order to achieve this? 

_{Dion Smith-Dokkie (he, they) is a painter and visual artist currently living in Vancouver on the unceded ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ. He is a recent graduate of the UBC MFA in Visual Arts program. Dion also holds degrees from the University of Victoria and Concordia University. His practice hones in on sea foam, skin, screens, clouds and skies, and interfaces of all sorts through the lens of painting, drawing, and video. He grew up in the Peace River region of British Columbia and Alberta and is a member of West Moberly First Nations.} 

Lares. Acrylic and mixed-media on cotton sheeting. Dimensions variable. 2021.  

I created a series of paintings in acrylic on cotton sheeting, adorned with false pearls, gems, and other ornaments. The series responds to multiple presentations: Francisco Ibáñez-Carrasco’s The Normal that Never Was, as well as two panel presentations by Celeste Pang (Situating Long-Term Care as a Question of Housing and Homelessness) and Sarah Cooper (Pressure to be Masculine Associated with Poorer Mental Health Among Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Two-Spirit, Queer Men and Non-binary People).   

Where Ibáñez-Carrasco discussed the promise of pleasure as a research modality and community-building praxis, Pang offers the concept of agency in long-term care living and the idea of “decoration as placemaking”, as well as the potential future coming-together of inhabitants, designers, architects, and health workers; finally, Cooper analyzed the antagonistic effects of masculinity-pressures on the mental health of queer and trans people. Taken together, the presentations begin to co-articulate a provisional queer decoration politics—like the one José Esteban Muñoz outlines—which led me to conceptualize a series of cosmetic, multicolour pretty-paintings.  

The series is entitled Lares. Architects and designers are in some ways the guardian angels for those who inhabit the places the former construct—health workers, too. In truth, when inhabitants enact aesthetic and ergonomic, architectonic agency over their lifeworlds and rooms, beautiful exercises in buoyancy take place: “uplift”. This is not to trivialize such acts of decoration, adornment: we are doing away with the history of the asylum and prison when adornment is viewed not as an aberration but as a necessity for self-determined life-support systems.  

Etymologically, Lares refers to the entities that inhabit lived spaces—”topick gods”—and I wanted paintings that were angels for rooms, in which decorative and ornamental units combine into expansive profound space, virtual and sovereign space. This is what decorating as placemaking is: world-engineering and the manufacture of minimum survival conditions.  

The implications are profound when queers, architects, engineers and designers, health workers, and inhabitants meet. New forms of life, new living situations, new world designs are possible when this happens. I thought about rooms in a house and since paintings are said to be windows and objects, why not a room of unguent fluid plastic, luminous pearls and beguiling gems? How can queer inhabitants be empowered to exercise agency not only over the decorative aspects of their homes but also the design, construction, location, management, renewal, and flourishing of these spaces? What collaborations can be leveraged in order to achieve this? 

_{Dion Smith-Dokkie (he, they) is a painter and visual artist currently living in Vancouver on the unceded ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ. He is a recent graduate of the UBC MFA in Visual Arts program. Dion also holds degrees from the University of Victoria and Concordia University. His practice hones in on sea foam, skin, screens, clouds and skies, and interfaces of all sorts through the lens of painting, drawing, and video. He grew up in the Peace River region of British Columbia and Alberta and is a member of West Moberly First Nations.}