Fruity explores how gender is projected and perceived while referencing the history of still life painting and playing on the cultural association between bananas and sexual anatomy.  Commercial bananas reproduce asexually via underground rhizomes and the seedless fruit is essentially genderless, but their form is often read through a gendered lens shaped by a culturally constructed narrative. These paintings play on that tendency, challenging viewers to recognize how gendered assumptions are constructed, not inherent. The banana is not male or female. It’s not inherently sensual or erotic. It is just a banana.  

As a non-binary person living in a time where gender identity is debated and politicized in a way that is scary and dehumanizing, this work is personal.  The paintings are a visual invitation to think more deeply about the narratives we build and the assumptions we make in perceiving each other.