Queer Showcase with Molly Jean

Local multimedia artist Molly Jean is creating sci-fi realism realness. She showcases the queer community in many lights, inspiring others to channel self-love, confidence, and mental clarity. She’s multi-talented, and her skills are endless, from fine arts to dabbling in live performing. She does it all!  

When did you start painting, and how did you get into it?

I started painting back in 2016, but I didn’t get into it and really consider myself an artist until 2019. I would just do little stuff here and there. I didn’t realize that what I was doing was good, and that I liked doing it, and I could do so much more, until three years into it.

Have you always found yourself artistic and creative?

Absolutely not. When I started painting, it was just because I was actually trying to explore my sexuality, painting figures, and just using that as a form of therapy. I did not consider myself artistic in any way until that three-year mark; I call it my artistic awakening. It’s been really interesting all of a sudden, considering myself and appreciating myself as an artist. You don’t have to be a lifetime artist to be an artist.

How did you progress into doing custom pieces and selling merchandise?

I had a realization that I wanted to make money off of my art, and I want to spread it around. Then I did a show outside of a dispensary all summer, an art show. And so, I started making custom lighters and grinders. When you’re a multimedia artist like me, you’re not really limited to just painting, sculpting, or custom work. I can really offer out a lot of stuff; I can do everything.

How would you describe your style?

Lately I’ve been describing it as  sci-fi realism because no matter what I’m doing, what medium I’m working with or what I’m doing it on, it always comes off as fantasy. They’re surreal. You think it’s just this lady stepping out of a curtain, and she has a mustache and an alien face.

How would you describe your style?

I don’t want to sound vain, but I inspire myself in a big way. I admire and respect myself, and I just want to spread that. I want to go around and inspire other people and show them that you deserve XYZ from yourself. So that’s really where I get my inspiration from, and then when I’m painting, it’s all coming from my brain, in my imagination, and even some forms of therapy. I have a whole art style that’s based around meditation. It’s helping me meditate because I have ADHD, so if I want to meditate, I also kind of need to be doing something.

Do you feel it’s important to highlight queer representation?

I do because as a more cis-presenting person, I feel I get into spaces and then realize I’m the only queer one in the whole art show. So, I think it’s really important for me in those moments to highlight this art is coming from a place of exploring my queer identity. This is a self portrait of me in drag that I took in a queer space, telling them about that night. I do think that representation is really important because unless I represent myself in that way, I don’t get seen.

How did you get into drag performing, and how’s that currently going?

In high school, my choir teacher had a final for my all-women’s choir class, to do a lip sync for your life performance. I was a junior, and I was just freshly (out as) queer. So I got into all kinds of drag, and I would just go to school in drag all the time, in all-types-of-gender-presenting drag, and just confuse the heck out of everyone.

Then I started taking it to the stage. I do love people, and I love entertaining, but I was hitting a wall and realizing that I had a lot of anxiety to fight. So I stopped performing, and I started taking my drag looks out and going to spaces and events that you would not see a drag queen in. It gives me the opportunity to tell people what drag is and just show people that it’s fun. It’s something that I use in my artistic career and not something that I use so much on stage anymore. It is a huge underlying thing that I do, and sometimes I’m selling my art in full drag.

Is it therapeutic to be able to express yourself artistically using various mediums?

Yes, it is. It’s one of my main forms of therapy. Just dumping whatever I have around—all my crusty old paints onto the canvas and letting whatever happens happen. I’m creating a workshop surrounding that, giving people tools to manage their emotions and express themselves at home. I think it’s really important to recognize that you don’t need to have a goal in mind to get something on a canvas. And you don’t need to be an artist to use creativity as a way to just express yourself, center yourself, and use it as an outlet. It’s 100 percent how I manage my mental health.

Where do you see yourself artistically in a couple years, and what do you hope to accomplish?

Artistically, I see myself more developed in my painting and a bit more exposure in my community and beyond. Just being successful in sharing my story and my journey through each art piece is an important thing. I’m getting into body painting right now. Body painting has been a huge goal of mine for the past year. I’m shadowing a body painter at Temple, Matt Worldly, and he’s showing me how to do this in a club scene, so that I can bring body painting into queer spaces and into festivals; that’s my main goal.

Anything else you would like to add?

I’m working on sculptures right now. I’m putting my art into 3D. There is this heart sculpture I’m creating out of recycled wood from Denver Cornhole Games, I get free wood wherever I can. I’m taking these wooden triangles and making sculptures out of them for Valentine’s Day because it’s my favorite holiday.

You can check out more from Molly Jean on her instagram 

@missmollyqueen or website missmollyjean.com.