Curtis Walker

Curtis has studied art his whole life. At college in Portland, Oregon, Curtis self-designed his degree in Behavioral Science with concentrations in theater and visual arts. As an intern, he taught art to homeless LGBTQIA+ youth. His thesis on art and healing included curating and installing an exhibit. Throughout 1999-2001, he worked for Roger V. Thomas, assisting in creating elaborate fused-glass installations. From 2003 to 2015, in Portland, Curtis founded and ran Impetus Arts, a multi-issue theater company centering disabled people. He recruited and facilitated diverse groups of people working together to curate events. He taught workshops, produced, and directed original material, including 14 performances and 1 festival. Since 2016, Curtis’ art has been focused on fat nude and semi-nude LGBTQ2SIA+ photographic portraiture. His fat-positive art centers BIPOC, trans, femme, super fat, infini-fat, and disabled people, especially those with many identities, living on the edges and borders of their communities.

Curtis will create photographic portraiture of fat queer, trans, and nonbinary femmes/fems expressing themselves: bold, present and genuine. Curtis will tap into their lived experience with anorexia, as a  fat, disabled, fem nonbinary and trans person. Focused on those of whose identities are intersectionality marginalized and left out of mainstream media, even some LGBTQ+ media, Curtis aims to empower and celebrate fellow fat, queer and trans femmes/fems, like themself, as they explore collective genuine power. The completed photographs will be exhibited online to make them accessible to the communities, especially immunocompromised members of the community who cannot attend in-person events due to their heightened risk of COVID-19.