My name is Kate Luce, and I am an multi-disciplinary artist based in Indiana. My current work focuses on the rural queer identity using hunting camouflage as a source of inspiration. 

Growing up in a conservative part of Indiana, I wish I had known that queerness surrounded me, especially when I felt most alone. Even in the most conservative, rural landscapes, queerness is inherent in the fauna and flora. Many native plants and animals have multiple genders; animals can have same sex relationships; organisms as seemingly insignificant as lichen do not entertain the binary restraints of plants or fungi. My visual research explores that I do have a place in rural environments, even when queerness is reviled. My paintings and prints disrupt the binary gender identity and heteronormativity and its complex relationship to the conservative and rural landscape of home. With merging figures, I hide and emerge in the camouflage landscape, referencing my place in this landscape.

Expanding the connection between queerness and the natural world, I use camouflage fabric as both a symbol and material to navigate the tension between concealment and visibility within the rural landscape of my home. I often feel like prey; some of my closest loved ones reject my identity. Other times, I can stand up for myself and my beliefs. These two polar opposites are integral to my identity, inseparable and often happening simultaneously. Colors directly impact the figures: pink expresses my more submissive side, while natural tones portray me as a dominant, commanding figure. Queerness will always survive, whether camouflaged, fully visible or somewhere in the middle.