Untitled (pastels portrait) by Kamdyn Alexis Love
Medium: Pastels
Dimensions: 12 x 18
Artist Statement: This untitled drawing serves a larger purpose. In the free world, we take for granted that we can wake up every day and throw on our expensive make up and go out into the work looking fabulous and feeling confident. In prison, especially "men's" prisons, that's not a luxury that is afforded. Now you may say, "You're in prison. Who do you have to impress?" And I would challenge you with this: If your very gender were called into question on a daily basis and you didn't have access to gender affirming clothes and hygiene, and aren't even referred to by the correct pronouns, how much more important would any small expression of your gender become? Since we don't have these products in the same ways the free world does, many turn to things like soft pastels to make up the difference. In the same way I haeve applied pastels to the face of the drawing, it is the same medium many of us use to do our make up inside, one of the only ways transgender females in male prisons ever truly feel feminine.
Image description: Chalk pastel drawing of a feminine face with light tan skin facing the viewer. The person has brown eyes with black eyeliner and yellow eyeshadow, rosy cheeks, and red lips. The hair is brown and shoulder length, partially down and partially with a bun on top. The face is soft and brushed but the details are clear; the hair has detailing in black.