Abbey LaCroix

I desire to produce tender images under the influence of subjects that often invoke intensity in others. Painting images about bodily forms and fluidity in a rigid manner has become ritualistic to me, and as a result, spiritual. My work places emphasis on composition, balance, and quality of line. Utilizing these elements, I aim to produce simple, yet engaging images. Themes of sex, transformation, gender, and spirituality are the current focus of my practice. Being in a female presenting body has had an impact on the ways in which I navigate the world and the ways I am perceived as an individual––even more so in religious and professional spaces. Many people with uteruses are taught from a young age that the purpose of sex is to get pregnant or pleasure men. Experimenting with the abstraction of bodies in settings reminiscent of landscapes and stained glass, I have been exploring the connectivity between feminine energy, pleasure, and the natural world. I am interested in observing the phenomenon of gender presentation, and the reclamation of the female-presenting form by woman-identifying artists. The process of making a painting has become a reminder of the body I reside in—I don’t want my choice of material to be the main conversation of my work, but instead a reminder of the body that made it.