This transgender artist creates rainbow portraits of other transgender culture-makers

Making the rounds of American cities is a series of larger-than-life portraits, each featuring a transgender or 'non-binary culture-maker' from various walks of life – from chefs and musicians, to poets and athletes. Interestingly, the subjects of this portrait-series by Portland, Oregon-based 39-year-old transgender non-binary artist Rae Senarighi (inset) stand against a blue background, their faces and body parts painted in rainbow hues, while their clothes and accessories are in black and white.

The series, named TRANSCEND, was made sometime last year, though the idea occurred to Senarighi while he (who is alright with both pronouns) was working on an earlier project. "I was hired to create a mural of six LGBTQ leaders for a college campus and I decided to paint them in rainbow colours, since the community uses the rainbow as a symbol to celebrate its diversity," says Senarighi, a student of fine arts, who felt the need to create more such portraits of non-binary individuals once the project got over. "This is the most marginalised group within our community. I also have personal ties to it, being non-binary myself," says Senarighi who started reaching out to friends to help get his idea off the ground.

"My friend Acton is the first portrait in the series. I painted him on wood so that I could cut out the portrait and play with the background. At that time, I did not know what I wanted the backgrounds to be or how to tie these individuals together into a cohesive collection. There were many failed attempts until one day it dawned on me that transgender people are constantly told by society to not take up any space and keep oneself safe by being unseen. I knew then that they just needed to be standing with a vast blue sky behind them, existing in a world of wide open space," he says, adding that the decision to use black and white for the clothes was intentional as many of his subjects were models and fashion leaders and thus dressed very vibrantly. "I wanted to shift the focus on them as people and less on their attire, while still paying respect to their fashion."

(Acrylic paint on canvas portraits of (left) Alok, @alokvmenon; (Right) JaydenRiley, @full.mental.alchemist1111 and Umlilo, @kwaai_diva)

Senarighi took the help of social media, especially photo-sharing app Instagram, to reach out to trans and non-binary people across the world for his project. "There are poets and writers, musicians and teachers, activists and speakers, athletes and modern dancers, photographers and artists – people who are living their lives out in the open, with grace and courage and telling their unique stories in their own way," he says.

Most of the portraits have been painted from photographs since it wasn't possible for Senarighi to meet all his subjects, picked from across the globe, in person. So, he asked them to send him black and white photos of themselves, a conscious decision to save himself the distraction of colours in the picture.

Being a transgender, feels Senarighi, helps him portray his subjects better. "I have a deeper understanding of who these individuals are through our shared experience and my interest in our diversity. That said, I am very aware that my experience as a white, transmasculine person living in a very trans-friendly city makes my understanding limited. I am trying to learn from others in my community every day. It is my wish to use whatever privilege I have to help tell these stories and to centre people who are more marginalised and oppressed than I am. None of us is free until all of us are free," he adds.

Netflix Project

Earlier this year, a Netflix transgender-special series, First Time I See Me, had Senarighi painting giant portraits of genderqueer individuals in 30 minutes. He initially thought that he wouldn't be able to do it. "Fortunately for me, they were persistent. I did about five test paintings at home to practise and ensure I could produce something that quickly. They liked what I sent, and so we moved ahead," says the artist