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Oil and acrylic on wood panel

!rough abstract paintings, I attempt to convey a speci"c feeling without the more digestible communication of 
representational images or writing. I concentrate primarily on themes of the body, particularly the queer and female 
body, and how bodies struggle to simply exist in the world without being judged, edited, restricted, degraded, or 
demonized. !is piece began as an examination of the ways gravity a#ects paint—the ways it splatters, rolls, and sinks 
into the wood panel. As layers built up, I began to imagine the space as weightless. Not only were the white circles 
$oating through space, but it felt like a window into a truly weight-less plane—a place where the concept of weight 
and all its attendant standards did not apply or even exist. As we try to create a world where bodies are considered 
worthy of respect in their current state, not just in some future, unattainably perfect state, I think it is crucial for 
people to imagine the euphoric calm that comes from existing without the need for justi"cation or apology. 

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023112

they told us we could be weightless (they lied)

by Jenna Riedl


