Growing up in rural Texas, I have learned to build an exoskeleton to protect the vulnerability of my queer identity. Ideologies of this landscape encourage conformity to traditional, heterosexual, and masculine gendered roles of patriarchy. Attempts to explore identity outside of this societal structure are deemed unacceptable and risk ostracization, hateful judgment, and loss of community.  

Through intimate documentation of childhood home videos, I examine early moments where subtle but sharp ideologies start to scrape up against the susceptibility of my youth. Shaft from Sole draws on these documented experiences, confronting the challenge of safeguarding my vulnerability from damaging beliefs that sought to shape my identity to fit the mold of those who preceded me. Through the act of quilting together soft memories with piercing barbed wire, I grapple with blurring the lines between social ideas of the gender binary and sexuality to bring change for a more accepting culture.