My name is Dylan Anderson. My pronouns are he/him and they/them. I identify as a biracial, transgender person of colour, but I mainly identify as an artist. Most times I use paint as well as other kinetic mediums when I create my art, but I also use photography and other digital mediums to express my surroundings and the people around me. I would always draw when I was a kid and I basically just evolved my skills until I was confident enough to start expanding my horizons to include other mediums and topics.
Image created by Dylan Anderson
The ability to be as realistic or abstract through my paintings allows me to express different aspects of my personality as well as be able to use lots of colour or be monochromatic. I shifted from doing requests, nature scenes and creatures to expressing my personal identity through my art around the time when I started high school. I was in an Art 1/2 class with my teacher Mr. Merrill and was instructed on how I can achieve more with art than just taking people’s requests and creating what was asked of me. I could do more. I could create for myself and express myself in another way.
photo by Dylan Anderson
Now I use art as an outlet when I need to express my emotions in a way that is not very easy to do with words alone. For me, it is a lot easier to explain the meaning behind a doodle than try to articulate an explanation for what I am feeling. I usually express my gender when I am frustrated with the transition process, but other than that I feel like I do not need to because I don’t feel the need to cope with it. Sometimes I do personify my gender as a shapeshifter. Ever-changing but still the same. As I seem to change to others on the outside, I am just an evolved version of the “me” on the inside.
photo by Dylan Anderson
My art usually has a small audience, but it has taken on a larger following than I had expected. Now others find meanings in my art that equate to hope, resilience and sometimes even frustration and sadness. I hope my audience finds what they deem is relatable or helpful when viewing my art. Whether it just be something nice to look at or to find a deeper meaning in it, but in the end I hope my audience finds their version of peace.
