ENCORE MAGAZINE
By: Lauren Hodges - January 13th, 2009

IN 2007 LYNN CASPER CO-FOUNDED THE PROGRESSIVE COMMUNITY GROUP “BE YOUR OWN HERO”(BYOH) here in Wilmington. She and her friends decided they were tired of waiting around for other people to create some positive change in the community, and they realized that they could make things happen. The first annual Hero Fest was held in September 2007, which included workshops, bands and musicians, free food from Food Not Bombs, and a “Really Really Free Market.” Since then BYOH has produced several sister branches of social activism, including a knitting group and a gay spinoff called “Be Your Own Queero.”

“Be Your Own Queero is founded on the same principles as the BYOH movement and maintains the same do-it-yourself ethic,” Casper’s partner, Selena Shissler, says. “We would like everyone in Wilmington, whether queer or queer-allied, to feel empowered and inspired to build their ideal community. In the spirit of BYOH, people can get involved with our current projects or propose their own.

“We also want to be a role model by showing how anyone can start building a better, stronger and more visible queer community in their own town.”

Shissler, an artist who studied art history and museum studies at Evergreen College and who curated an art show at the 2008 Hero Fest, says that her ultimate goal is to found a nonprofit for queer artists. “Since queer issues cross so many boundaries and touch so many different communities, art is a great way to break barriers and bring those communities together,” she says.

BYOQ is mainly an online blog and podcast giving gay and pro-gay progressives a place to meet, discuss their views and plan movements for change. As the Web site grows, so do opportunities for the gay community. Shissler and her fellow Queeros have recently been on the lookout for gay artists to feature online and elsewhere.

“My goal in featuring art on the site is to give some much-needed exposure to local queer artists,” Shissler says. “It’s also a safe place for them to freely express themselves and get feedback on their work. Eventually, I would like to have art shows at the Community Action Center (317 Castle Street), where we hold many of our events, and other venues. I want to show that having a strong, supportive queer community is necessary, lest we all miss out on some great art. The site will also feature a weekly QueerArt post, which will highlight a different artist who was a Queero in their own time and now serves as inspiration to new generations of queer artists.”

So far the search has produced some fruitful results. Claire Leonard, a 22-year-old Wilmington native currently living in Brooklyn, New York, has submitted her “Simulacrum” series for consideration.

“When simulacrum was explained to me, the only example that made sense was Velveeta cheese,” Leonard says. “It’s a product made to impersonate cheese as well as to surpass the actual substance it is mimicking. Velveeta’s ingredients are hardly similar to that of cheese. By containing whey, a by-product of cheese, Velveeta is able to count itself as processed cheese. It’s like cheese. Thus, I consider my paintings simulacrums.”

Leonard’s abstract acrylics seem to depict buildings, land and furniture. She is hesitant to call them landscapes, since they are not meant to represent scenes from the real world. “They resemble landscapes but bare no resemblance to any place in particular and avoid following any traditional sense of the word landscape,” she explains.

Leonard’s work is scheduled to be posted on BYOQ’s Web site soon. As more and more submissions get in line behind her, a vast network of talented gay artists is sure to emerge. Shissler is excited about the response so far and can’t wait to see what else comes in.

“For far too long, minority groups—women, ethnic minorities, queers—have been excluded from art history and the art world in general,” Shissler says. “LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender] issues are cross-cultural: There are Jewish queers, Christian queers, atheist queers, Hispanic queers, African-American queers, Asian queers, etc. Both political and personal art is important in building a stronger queer community. Political art can have the power to bring new perspectives to light and raise awareness of certain issues. Non-political art can be powerful on a personal level, allowing queer artists a healthy outlet and means of expressing themselves in a world that has yet to become entirely welcoming.”

Be Your Own Queero, its blogs and podcasts can be found online at www.beyrownqueero.com, which provides links to their social network pages on Facebook, MySpace, GLEE, Twitter and Tumblr. Readers wishing to contribute artwork for exhibit consideration or to simply get involved should contact selena@beyrownqueero.com.