Queerness has often occupied the threshold between presence and erasure. The issue of visibility has been important to queer people historically and continues to play a crucial role in queer self-definition. Through painting, I investigate the impact of place on queer culture and queer identity. My body of work engages with visual traditions within queer culture through figurative painting and an examination of queer existence. By refusing to sensationalize queerness, I allow the paintings to focus on the all-too-real feeling of not belonging, a feeling highlighted by contrasts: between the colors of the figures and their environments and between carefully worked and less refined areas of the painted surface. This exploration is my way of awakening viewers to scenes of underrepresented people, the persistence of outdated gender roles, and the means through which LGBTQIA+ individuals identify as whole persons through and beyond the spheres of gender and sexuality.