My instructor Matt Siber with my new work during today’s critique. #art #workinprogress #photography #personal #political #atyourservice #latentconfrontations

New photo series: AmeriKaraoke #art #workinprogress #modelminority #atyourservice #conceptual #photography #text #karaoke #american #assimilation #immigration #military

I’m taking a break from making identity-based art, and so now I’m making photographs and screenprints of PRETTY FLOWERS! 

Granted, this idea and process stems from my Camouflage as a Metaphor for Passing series, but it’s become a bit abstracted and totally aestheticized. And I’m ok with that.  

Vajaqueque by Kiam Marcelo Junio, 2012-2013 #queer #performance #chicago #art #photography #picoftheday

Detail: Mike / by Kiam Marcelo Junio 2010-2013 #queer #gaze #desire #performance #photography

Titty Perkins // by Kiam Marcelo Junio, 2013. 11x17 in. Inkjet print #queer #chicago #performance #burlesque #vaudezilla #art #photography #fashion

Jerry Blossom by Jacqueline Renee Friedberg / Kiam Marcelo Junio, 2013. #art #photography #performance #queer #chicago

Sissy Spastik @sissyspastik by Kiam Marcelo Junio, 2013-2013. 17x22 in inkjet print. #queer #performance #chicago #art #photography

Darling Shear by Kiam Marcelo Junio 2012-2013. #art #photography #queer #performance #chicago

[x]P / Jesus Plaza / @n_ovember // by Kiam Marcelo Junio, 2012-2013. #queer #performance #chicago #art #photography #allmyfriendsaresexy

Wes Perry ( @yeshairy ) by Kiam Marcelo Junio, 2012-2013 // 11x17 inkjet print. #queer #chicago #performance #art #photography

Mister Junior (detail) by Kiam Marcelo Junio, 2012-2013 #art #photography #burlesque #queer #performance

Alberto Ramón Gutierrez / MisterJunior.com // 17x22 in inkjet print by Kiam Marcelo Junio #art #photography #queer #chicago #performance #burlesque #boylesque #Vaudezilla

Jerry Blossom House Sitting, Brooklyn NY. #workinprogress #art #photography #critique #queer #theory

This is considered the largest wooden structure in the world, last time I checked.  It’s in Sevilla, about 30 mins from Rota, a small village where I was stationed with the US Navy in Spain for 3.5 years.

I went to my storage unit today and pulled out a bunch of Polaroids which I’m installing and selling for 2nd Friday at the Greenhouse.  A lot of the photos are from my time in Europe, and I got nostalgic for that period in my life.

There was an innocence about that time. I was blessed with youth and a paycheck twice a month.  I traveled anywhere in Europe as I pleased. If I wanted to go to London for the weekend, I could.  I visited Paris and Barcelona at least 4 times each. The friends I kept around me were wonderful and supportive, for the most part, and also loved to travel.

 Nevertheless, there was a prying dissatisfaction, knowing I wasn’t supposed to be there in the military, that every fiber of my being was telling me I needed to be making art and being around more like-minded people. It felt suffocating.  The first quarter of 2011 was a long waiting game for my separation on May of that year. 

During my last year in the military (and consequently, my last year in Spain), I took on a project in which I photographed my life with Polaroid cameras.  I called it Placer Instantáneo (Instant Pleasure).  Each day I designated a Polaroid photo for that day.  Today, I went through some of those photos, looking at a life I lived so long ago.  It feels like a lifetime has passed. I’m not that person anymore. I still have similar hopes, dreams, but I’m much more affirmed of my place in life.  Though times are harder now (I rarely travel, as I’m just barely getting by with rent and food and art supplies), I’m much more confident in my skin, I feel much better supported and loved by family, friends and lovers, and so much happier in every sense.