Portrait of US: Issue #18
I don't hear a lot of perspectives from my point of view, in the mixed little Venn diagram that makes up me
When we sat down with Forrest in his home outside of Orlando Florida this past November he had thought about his story and the power behind sharing it. Forrest described himself to us as a queer artist living in a rural community, coming from a “broken home situation” and growing up in foster care since he was ten.
He uses bright colors in his work and brings lot of life to each piece, describing it as a way of codifying his work in his own figurative language, saying “ It's about these are queer bodies without them having to be, fucking.”
It was a pleasure to meet with him and get to hear a bit of his story. You can listen to his story and read the transcript below.
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My name is Forrest Wilson, an artist in Central Florida, born and raised. When I first saw the prompt, the idea of sharing stories, I thought it was like… I kind of felt it was important that I kind of talk about certain things. I'm a queer artist and I live in a rural community. I grew up in, I guess you could call it a broken home situation. Up until the time I was ten, I was mostly raised by my grandparents. My mother was like kind of around. My father was not in my life. My grandmother passed, which caused a lot of drama in the family. Essentially it resulted in me living in foster care. I was there until I was 18, and kind of since then, it's just kind of been me on my own. You know, I don't hear a lot of perspectives from like my point of view, in the mixed little Venn diagram that makes up me. But I just wanted to share that story because I think it's important, I guess to provide hope, especially for a lot of the kids in those situations. Because, that was a time when I was always thinking about the future and always trying to be like, eventually things will get better or change and ,it's up to me…
[Monica] So essentially you grew up in foster care, so you went through like most of your teens and all that. So, what's your definition of like a family or like how do you define that for yourself?
[Forrest] It's complicated because it's all about like you choosing. I've realized that more I get older, that it's a lot about… love is making and maintaining connections and care and support. Not out of … Some people, I think, do it out of, feelings of burden because, I think some people see their family as a burden or something else, but like they have to love somebody because of something. And that's not true. A lot of my years now , and especially my work, is me thinking about what is love? What does that mean? Do I really understand it? Like from my experience feeling different to a lot of people that I find in the spheres that I operate
So that’s what’s really important to me I guess right now is like discovering… That's a really important question, like for me to still continue to discover
[Adam] What was the relationship like with your grandmother?
[Forrest] I was, I was her favorite. I was the one that she definitely had the closest relationship with, and I had the closest relationship with her. Even as a kid, I was like, I was really fascinated. I would always ask her questions about her childhood and things like that. And it was just, we had really great conversations. She died in a car accident and I was in a car with her when she passed. So it was a it was a very intense relationship, but I also credit her a lot for giving me like early discipline and determination.
I had my I had a really great relationship with her and I had a really great relationship with a foster dad I had who I also I really I really credit him probably more than anyone else with helping me turn my life around because I was really depressed and not realizing it at that point in my life. And getting into his home, he was just… he was… he was gay. That was so important for me. That was the end of high school. So I was 17, 18. So I think my relationship with him, I think a lot more about… rebuilding and forging family because that for me, what that did feel like, looking back on it, yeah he unfortunately also passed, so I think a lot about trying not to waste time and that the time we have is so important. So that's a big part of it.
[Monica] How has it been being a queer person in Florida? From the outside we see a lot of you know, politics that are rough. How are you doing living here, and Are you okay living here?
[Forrest]No. I mean, I don't want to stay here. Ideally, that's kind of where I'm looking at now is where can I put this practice and thrive, you know, and continue to build a community? Because I don't have that… I'm not that involved with community here. I have some friends in the queer community, but there is isn't… Ever since like Pulse, especially there has not been… It hasn't felt the same in terms of being a community. It feels more oftentimes like you know, collecting to grieve sometimes.
It's just, those spaces that used to feel safe, are not safe anymore, especially being in the South. And I know I personally don't want to stay here.
[Monica] I was going to ask you if you could kind of explain to us your process with your work.
[Forrest]It's all it's all about me and it all comes from me. It's in a lot of ways… It's sort of like a secret, language that I have with myself. A secret figurative Language that I have with myself. I think my concept of beauty plays into that. That is this, like, seductive or intimate quality that I think makes you want to go back and forth and look at them and kind of see you the care that I've taken with them.
It's all about kind of being, like I said, being an imaginative queer who grew up in like a religious community and oftentimes in religious homes, dealing at times with symbolism that often felt about power and love. So when I look at a lot of religious art nowadays, I look back and say, why was I connected to that? Like, why am I drawn to looking at older or historical artwork or and I think it's this idea of power and this idea of, love. I think that's a very strongly figurative language for those, airy kind of not concrete, um, ideas concepts?,
[Monica] Have you always used such bright colors?
[Forrest] I've always liked these gemstones, this kind of rainbow thing. I think that comes from many places. Um, I want them to be made of color, comprised of color. I think it's a way of making them queer, making the subject queer, coding them in that way that people can kind of get to that without me having to, depict something that I wouldn't want to depict. I'm not always I'm not interested in like depicting sex or something like that. It's not just about that for me. It's about like, these are queer bodies without them having to be, fucking.
It’s about trying to mine real stories.