Today we’d like to introduce you to Cobi Moules.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I grew up in a small rural town in California. It was flat, dry and full of livestock, almond trees, and churches. Two hours from the Bay Area and two hours from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, it’s the place people stopped for gas. For every vacation, we went camping in the mountains outside of Yosemite. It was fun, exciting and absolutely gorgeous. The experiences I had with my family on those lakes and streams are ones I will always think fondly of. I started painting as a kid with my grandmother on her porch. She was so kind and encouraging and somehow put up with my need for perfection and the crying when I couldn’t make it happen. So many things about my childhood were incredible but it was also quite difficult. My family and the town are very conservative and growing up I never really felt like I could be myself or even figure out who that was. It wasn’t an ideal place for a queer trans kid in the 80s and 90s. I was not a very strong kid and did everything I could to blend in. Not until I left was I able to even begin to acknowledge and navigate my gender and sexuality. Even when I came out as a young adult, after moving away, it was really difficult and the relationships I had with my family began to fracture. Despite the love we have for each other, there doesn’t seem to be a space where our worlds can coexist. Much of my work navigate these relationships in an effort to reconcile who I am with my past and the nostalgia I have for the closeness we once had.
Please tell us about your art.
My work is painting and drawing. It’s self-portraiture and focuses on the exploration of my queer and trans identity. Much of it reflects back on childhood, family, and religious upbringing but often through play and humor.
The series I am currently working on is a group of paintings in which hundreds of tiny selves are multiplied throughout the grand American landscape. The locations that I have inhabited are spaces that were previously depicted by the Hudson River School. I am navigating the parallels between the Hudson River school and the religious ideology from my childhood. Ideas around virginity, purity and the honor of sacrificing one’s selfhood for the glory of God are spread throughout both. Their work embodies the overpowering force of God made manifest thru nature. The religious voices of my past use nature against the validation of my existence. By overwhelming theses spaces with my presence, I am shifting the weight within these spaces and creating a community of me playing, exploring my selves, exploring nature and being part of it.
Other projects that I have done in the past include inserting myself into New Kids on the Block posters and magazine clippings, drawing on different hair growth, balding and grooming, and recreating/altering childhood photographs. All of these series delve into my relationship to gender or sexuality. Some look ahead at the different possibilities while others look back onto childhood obsessions and queer desires. Overall, I am interested in using play and humor as a way of exploring multifaceted notions of the self, autonomy and queer desires.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
Amongst the artist that I know I would say the biggest challenge is balancing time between one’s art practice, job(s) and social life.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
You can see my work regularly at Carroll and Sons Gallery in Boston and Lyons Wier Gallery in New York or you can visit my website Cobimoules.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: cobimoules.com
- Email: cobimoules@gmail.com
- Instagram: @cobimoules
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