"Being othered is a common experience for both the queer and indigenous communities, and a source of both those pains can be traced to the organized christian faith denominations, specifically the institutions of the churches. Having grown up as a part of all three of these groups, and then leaving the faith, I was left with aching, gnawing feelings in my mind and body that could most aptly be described as trauma. With multi-media representations of the human form, I dissect and redefine social expectations of said trauma and advocate for its de-sanitization.  Within the art world, there is a habit of making pain palatable for viewers to interact with in an exhibitionist sense that doesn’t demand profound engagement. It allows viewers to keep very real, and very serious struggles at a distance so comfort is preserved. My primary goal as an artist is to contest this. Not through harmful means or shock value, but through depictions of the aftermath of trauma. Using unsettling visuals, I create uncensored work on marginalized experiences and the inherent difficulties that come with being a queer, indigenous person raised in the christian faith. 

Viscera is something that human beings have an innate reaction to. Being the inside of our bodies, it is something we would never typically see unless a human life were at risk, and so it evokes a deep discomfort, and oftentimes a gripping fear. This reaction itself is a species-wide trauma response. My work seeks to dismantle the idealized cleanliness and form of trauma by conventional standards, and instead aims to reflect the severity of each subject. Each piece tells a story of resilience, resistance, and reclamation." - Paige Bartsch