queer voices

Public Radio

Artists Talk with LVA: April 20, 2023

May O' Nays is one of the top drag performers in Louisville and she will joined us in the studio this week to talk about their work. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com at 10 am each Thursday to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

May O' Nays is one of the top drag performers in Louisville and she joined us in the studio this week to talk about their work. Also joining us was Tony Lewis, founder and producer of Drag Daddy Productions. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com at 10 am each Thursday to hear Artists Talk with LVA.

Sex kitten. World class dancer. International runway model. These are just some of the phrases that have never been used to describe May O'Nays. May is an experienced performer based in Louisville, Kentucky with a background in musical theatre. She will sing, act, and cook her way into your heart.

May’s lifelong dream has been to join the ranks of the home-making greats—Martha Stewart, Ina Garten, Nigella Lawson, and Amy Sedaris as a queen of homemaking. May loves taking drag into the community and into places that don’t typically see this art form. You can find her teaching cooking, crafting, gardening, and doing drag queen story time all around Louisville, Kentucky, and the Midwest.

In the Spring of 2022, May was proud to debut her self-written cabaret, Tuba Atonement. In the show, May gives an inside look of what it means to grow up as a country queer in rural Indiana. You can watch her as she spends an hour shamelessly pressing her finger into the raw wounds of childhood trauma her therapist just can't seem to heal. If you like the tuba, musical theater, and sausage gravy, Tuba Atonement is a show you must see.

Painting

Vignette: William Pichette


What portions of our self do we edit, manipulate, and hide from view for the greater good of likes and followers? – William Pichette


"Under Control" by William Pichette, 8x20in, acrylic on printed canvas (2016), $210 | BUY NOW

"Under Control" by William Pichette, 8x20in, acrylic on printed canvas (2016), $210 | BUY NOW

William Pichette is a painter who sees the inherent qualities of his medium as integral to expressing the themes in the imagery. In his own words: “The thrill of the acrylic paint medium comes from how quick you must work to create. The paint dries very fast but each attempt at progress easily hides the previous attempts. Hiding ourselves proves more difficult. Once we reveal our truths through action and speech, it is not so easily undone. In a world where compliance and filtering our daily expression is the norm, muting the brilliance of our emotion is preferred, and it would be an outrageous offense to demonstrate weakness, vulnerability, honesty—humanity—I cherish in sight of visibility.”

Pichette often sets his figures against patterned backgrounds, the human a silhouette initiating a conversation with negative space, full of emotional suggestion, signs and portents.

“My pieces are inspired both by how we see and how we are seen. How do we see ourselves behind closed doors, looking in vanity mirrors, and through the lenses of our Instagram and Snapchat feed? What portions of our self do we edit, manipulate, and hide from view for the greater good of likes and followers? Those raw bits; the understanding of ourselves we hold so true that we would hate for others to see. Those nuances draw my focus; typically not blemishes and physical flaws of our outward appearance, but parts of our body none-the-less. They are the fights with mental illness and turmoil of thought, our agitation and need for direction, the imprints of the souls of others and the scars of love lost.”

Pichette just participated in 2017 Group Exhibition, Queer Voices, at Open Community Arts Center, Louisville, KY.

Age: 25
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Education: Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Ethnic Studies (Asian-American Studies), University of Texas
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Shquiggles/

"Impressionable Young Minds - Christine" by William Pichette, 8x10in, acrylic and ink on canvas (2016), $140 | BUY NOW

"Impressionable Young Minds - Christine" by William Pichette, 8x10in, acrylic and ink on canvas (2016), $140 | BUY NOW

"Wanderlust" by William Pichette, 8x10in, acrylic and ink on canvas (2016), $140 | BUY NOW

"Wanderlust" by William Pichette, 8x10in, acrylic and ink on canvas (2016), $140 | BUY NOW

"Impressionable Young Minds - Will" by William Pichette, 8x10in, acrylic and ink on canvas (2016), $140 | BUY NOW

"Impressionable Young Minds - Will" by William Pichette, 8x10in, acrylic and ink on canvas (2016), $140 | BUY NOW

"See and Be Seen" by William Pichette, 8x10in, acrylic and ink on canvas (2015), $110 | BUY NOW

"See and Be Seen" by William Pichette, 8x10in, acrylic and ink on canvas (2015), $110 | BUY NOW

"Turbulent Thought" by William Pichette, 18x18in, acrylic on wood board (2016), $375 | BUY NOW

"Turbulent Thought" by William Pichette, 18x18in, acrylic on wood board (2016), $375 | BUY NOW

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved. 

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.

Photography

Vignette: Kevin Warth


“Resisting normative constructions of time, I examine moments in which the past, present, and future collapse upon each other.” Kevin Warth


Artist, Kevin Warth in his studio

Artist, Kevin Warth in his studio

When one says “digital” it tends to suggest clean, polished audio and visual product - the pristine clarity of the CD, or the magical ability to animate entire worlds in your favorite blockbuster movie. Yet there are legions devoted to the warmth and subdued crackle of analog technologies. Vinyl, for example is still first choice for many.

Kevin Warth’s photographs here are exposed and confessional self-portraits that have the feel of x-rays. The intentionally distressed images seem furtive and from a by-gone time, recalling vintage pornography and early experiments in multiple exposure techniques, so that we find Warth delivering a suitable marriage of theme and technique.  

“My work explores temporality, memory, and the body through self-portraiture. Resisting normative constructions of time, I examine moments in which the past, present, and future collapse upon each other. My body becomes a vehicle for memory as the past haunts the present. These images are tangible yet insubstantial. I use alternative and historic photographic processes alongside current digital methods of image making to further complicate and queer linear time. Moments are not discrete or bound to sequential time; rather, they bleed into other timelines in unexpected, jarring ways.”

"Echoes" by Kevin Warth, dimensions variable, photo transfer on glass (2016), $500 | BUY NOW

"Echoes" by Kevin Warth, dimensions variable, photo transfer on glass (2016), $500 | BUY NOW

"I Am Consumed By Specters" by Kevin Warth, 16x20in, kallitype (2015), $400 | BUY NOW

"I Am Consumed By Specters" by Kevin Warth, 16x20in, kallitype (2015), $400 | BUY NOW

Warth is a recent graduate of the University of Louisville’s Allen R. Hite Institute, where he had received the Mary Spencer Nay Memorial Scholarship, the Allen R. Hite Scholarship, the Barbara Bullitt Christian Memorial Scholarship in Photography, and the Allen Memorial Prize in Creative Art.

On May 4th, Warth will be participating in Rainbows & Roses, a benefit show to raise money for Louisville's future LGBTQ+ Community Center. On June 2, he will organize/participate in Queer Voices, another charity show to be held at OPEN Community Arts Center in which a percentage of the work sold will be donated to a local LGBTQ charity in remembrance of those lost in the Orlando nightclub shooting.

Hometown: New Albany, Indiana
Age: 24
Education: BFA in 2D Studios and BA in Art History, University of Louisville, 2016
Website: http://www.kevinwarth.com
Gallery Representation: garner narrative contemporary

"Un" by by Kevin Warth, 7x7in, ambrotype (2015), $750 | BUY NOW

"Un" by by Kevin Warth, 7x7in, ambrotype (2015), $750 | BUY NOW

"I Am Consumed By Him" by Kevin Warth, 16x20in, kallitype (2015), $400 | BUY NOW

"I Am Consumed By Him" by Kevin Warth, 16x20in, kallitype (2015), $400 | BUY NOW

"Deux" by Kevin Warth, 7x7in, ambrotype (2015), $750 | BUY NOW

"Deux" by Kevin Warth, 7x7in, ambrotype (2015), $750 | BUY NOW

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.