Figure 1
Valérie was a visual artist: being a performer, her body was her medium. I wanted to avoid the exploitation of trans bodies, especially those of transfemme people. So I focused on drawing her face. Because of that lack of reference material available, there was an absence of Valérie to converse with. So I tried to imagine how she would want to be portrayed. I looked at the small collection of images over and over again, and I drew them over and over again.
– Jesse Blanchard.
Figure 2
I imagined us laughing together, sharing cigarettes and sipping the champagne like in the image of her birthday party. It felt like a religious communion, like I was able to reach into the past and see a trans person thriving, and that, inspired me to thrive.
– Jesse Blanchard
Figure 3
I created layers from those images to imagine a rich and plentiful archive of her life. I tried to imagine what conversations we would have. What questions I would ask her. What questions she would ask me. What would it be like to sit with her while I drew her portrait?
– Jesse Blanchard