Val Michael, 18, is an upcoming artist on display at High Cotton Arts. His unique perspectives on identity and subject matter renders creations that are an extension of his own identity.

“I had made [art]work for a long time, about personal identity and about myself through self portraiture and things like that,” said Michael.

Through the process of creating artwork about personal identity, Michael came to recognize the impact that queerness has on his practice.

While he does not force queerness into his creations, it naturally presents itself in his art as part of his identity as a gay man.

Queerness is something “I can’t deny within my work,” said Michael. “Those are the things that I’m attracted to and the things that I want to explore from an intuitive and guttural place.”

He went on to say, “in more recent years queerness has had much more of an influence on my work and it will continue to.”

While he does not set off with the intention of exploring masculinity in his art, he recognizes its presence and understands that as a queer man themes of masculinity will find its way into his work.

“I think masculinity has a lot to offer and I think that it has a beauty and it’s much more complex than what society labels it as,” said Michael.

He recognizes that society often thinks poorly of masculinity because of the negative attributes of it, but encourages viewers to see the positive attributes masculinity offers, as well.

“There are ugly parts of masculinity, especially in Western culture, that obviously can’t be denied, but I think that it is a complex and beautiful and sexual thing that is worth exploring, especially as a gay man.” said Michael.

He went on to say, “art is an extension of oneself so there’s really no way that I can ignore it. So I thought, why not just immerse myself within it in my work?”

Historically, art has been a place where people can express queer identities.

“I think queerness exists throughout our history and especially throughout the history of painting,” said Michael.

In 1744 Francois Boucher created Jupiter and Callisto and more recently in 1872 D.H. Friston created “The Dark Blue” as the cover art for the sapphic novella “Carmilla.” These are only two of many works throughout art history that display queerness.

“I just think that it’s becoming a lot more obvious that it has existed and it still exists within painting,” said Michael.

He went on to say, “I want to be a part of that. I want to make sure that queerness is present and is represented within painting.”

Like many other artists, Michael uses his art as an avenue to work through the things he faces in life.

“It’s always just been something that I needed to do to work things out in my head, things that I can’t really work out through words,” said Michael.

His goal as an artist is to continue being as honest as he can with himself and to continue learning and growing as an artist.

He is beginning his first semester at the Art Institute of Chicago this month where he hopes to further himself as an artist.

Michael’s aunt, artist Vickie Camp, told The News Courier in March, “we have seen Val with his paintbrush, wandering through aisles of artists during our Art On The Square festivals that occurred for seven consecutive years, and as a teaching volunteer at High Cotton Arts, during the Athens Arts League Boys & Girl’s Club Art Camps.”

She went on to say, “he has always seen himself as an artist, and I have never discouraged that or suggested that he go another route.”

While he continues his art education, Michael hopes to become more comfortable with his work and hold himself to less expectations.

“I don’t want to hold expectations for my work,” said Michael.

To keep up with Michael’s work while he is at the Art Institute of Chicago, visit his Instagram @valmichael_

To see his work in person, visit High Cotton Arts during public hours, as posted on their website highcottonarts.com