J. Carino

Region: Pacific Coast

Website: http://www.jcarinoart.com

City / State: Riverside, CA

  I am interested in the interactions between people and nature and how the creation of our sense of self connects to the natural world. Wrestling with ideas of traditional fertility and queer intimacy, my work depicts monumental nude, queer figures in landscapes that are both idyllic and tinged with danger.

Often in society, queer people are viewed as “unnatural” and so are not afforded the luxury of permanence. In my work, however, the figures become a part of the landscapes on different scales of time: the fleeting lives of wildflowers, the century-long lives of trees, and the eternity of the mountains. This work expresses the ‘naturalness’ of nudity, sexuality, and queerness, which is as elemental a component of the landscape as the rocks and trees. Through a mixture of drawings of nature, of the self, and of my husband and friends, the bodies and faces undulate through the landscapes and bring the different parts of myself together on the canvas.