Jrenby

"A couple years ago, I adopted a pet snake, and last year, I started HRT. My snake, Erebos, is a black milk snake - as a hatchling, he was tricolor with black, red, and white stripes, but as he ages and sheds his skin, he will develop into a fully black snake. I like to say that we are transitioning together. The snake in my painting is shedding skin to show the colors of the trans pride flag. Like a snake shedding its scales to reveal brighter colors underneath, I too am transitioning into my new skin."

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Jren (they/them) is a queer, transmasculine artist based in Boston, Massachusetts. Their work New Skin is part of their series I Have To Be Visible/I Have To Hide, which is a manifestation of the emotions surrounding their gender transition and what it means to be visibly trans and queer in today’s political climate.

Outside of the queer experience, Jren’s work celebrates the beauty and enchantment of the natural world, often with a fantastical twist. Since graduating with a BA in Studio Art and German Language & Culture, they have shown paintings in a variety of art shows in the north-eastern United States.

Jren has several artistic endeavors in addition to painting, including enamel pin design, poetry composition, and pride merchandise design, some of which you can see at jrendesigns.com. You can find miniature acrylic paintings and fantasy animal enamel pins in Jren’s Etsy shop, RabenfederCraft.