TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOU AS AN ARTIST. WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU? HOW’D YOU GET YOUR START?

I am a queer artist, educator, and activist, and I create immersive installations that take the form of video projection, sound, blown glass, and neon. I am a second generation glass artist, my mother is a stained glass artist, and I identify as a feminist. My projects address issues of sexism, queer culture, protest, and telepresence. Currently, I am focused on the power of words, language, and cultural biases as those topics relate to gender politics, birth, and queerness in a contemporary and historical context.

One thing that sustains me, is finding the right people, the right community. I love experimenting with others - whether it’s on an opera, in a gallery, or working with different performers or collectives.

WHAT WAS ONE OF THE MOST CHALLENGING THINGS YOU'VE FACED RECENTLY AND WHAT GOT YOU THROUGH?

Last week I installed a massive public artwork, titled MOTHER, at the Houston Botanic Gardens in Houston, TX (it will be up through June 2022). This is a very large artwork that was months in the making. To produce this work, I was coordinating between Lawndale Arts, Galleri Urbane Marfa + Dallas, the Neon Gallery, and the botanic garden to finalize the design, electricity, and placement. One of the most challenging parts (aside from the sheer scale of this work) was wondering if it was all going to come together and how it was all going to come together. I love installing work in nontraditional spaces, but these spaces come with their own challenges. Honestly, what gets me through the uncertainty is being okay with the possibility of failure. I think a lot about Jack Halberstam’s “queer art of failure” and art as a practice of refusal - whether that’s refusing capitalism, normativity, or my own ideas of what might be “successful” or not. Also, good coffee and chocolate croissants help a lot too.

MOTHER consists of an original three-word poem which reads: OTHER MOTHER ANOTHER in yellow, orange, and pink neon. Each letter is 4’ x 4’ and they span the 400’ concrete corridor leading into the gardens. This work seeks to bring the community together while adding to global narratives that relate to climate change and eco-feminism. In this context, “Mother” serves as a double entendre referring both to Mother Earth” and maternal figures.

WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU WORKING ON THAT YOU’RE STOKED ON AND WHY?

THE QUEER BIRTH PROJECT! I just launched a new project called the Queer Birth Project. The first part of this project includes a national survey - as a storytelling tool - to share the birthing experiences of queer people (LGBTQ+) in America. This includes the stories of gestational and non-gestational parents, surrogates, adoptive parents, or anyone who identifies as queer and has experience with childbirth, and should take folks around 30 minutes to complete.

Website/ survey: https://www.thequeerbirthproject.com/

Instagram: @thequeerbirthproject

The structure of this survey is a re-envisioning of feminist artist Judy Chicago's Birth Project survey from 1981. To do this, I collaborated with a sociologist (Katherine Sobering) to update the original language making it inclusive, and we added additional questions that are specific to queer family building. Representation and inclusion around birth and family plays a significant role in expanding cultural ideas, accessing healthcare, and building community. Sharing our stories is the best way to celebrate joy and recognize adversity, and I hope others will participate!

On a more personal note, this project developed out of a yearning for community after facing years of heartache, bias around reproductive health, and trying to build our family unsuccessfully. As a soon-to-be queer parent, my wife is pregnant with our first child due in December, I am excited to learn about other families and their birth experiences.

ANY ADVICE FOR AN ARTIST FEELING STUCK?

I think about that song, Turn! Turn! Turn! Written by Pete Seeger in 1959 and performed by the Byrds. It sounds cliche, but sometimes time is the best remedy for feeling stuck. It is okay to feel stuck, sometimes we need to feel stuck to move through something or to just exist in this complicated world. I also think about the Nap Ministry (especially in COVID times - if you don’t follow them on social media you should) and their ethos to “please rest, disrupt and push back against a system that views you as a machine, you are not a machine.” Rest is a form of resistance and resetting, and sometimes just being present in ourselves and our surroundings is the best we can do.

FAVE QUEER ARTIST? WHERE DO YOU FIND YOUR INSPIRATION?

So many, but some of my all time faves are: Barbara Hammer, Jacolby Satterwhite, Wu Tsang, Raúl De Nieves, Zach Blas, Legacy Russell, and Cassills. I find inspiration everywhere, but it also depends on what specific project I might be working on at the moment. For example, in MOTHER, I found inspiration in the Texas sunset - the way it goes pink before fading away. This informed my color choices for the neon, and the way the light changes it throughout the day.

WHY’D YOU CHOOSE STEPH TO DOCUMENT THESE PHOTOS FOR YOU?

In the past, I have taken my own headshots in my studio. However, Steph photographed me and my wife this past summer when we found out that she was pregnant, and made me feel seen as a queer person. Visability is so important, especially in Texas, and it is always reaffirming to be around other queer folk who value who you are and what you have to say. When we talked about these photos, I just shared that I wanted them to be very colorful and capture “queer joy” to the best of our ability, and I think she did just that!

Liss Headshots // Dallas