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Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
35x54;
Oil on Canvas;
2025
When I was young, and just beginning to take an interest in art, my first projects were extensions of the things I felt missing in myself. Growing up in a strict, authoritarian religion, I was taught that as a girl, I was destined to be emotional, nurturing, and soft. But I never seemed to fit that mold. The only emotion that ever felt close to the surface was anger—and that wasn’t something I was allowed to show. So I started creating art as a way to give shape to what I couldn’t express.
Now, as I create work as a professional artist, those early impulses still guide me. Themes of mental health, religious trauma, queerness, and authenticity are woven through everything I do.
In this piece, I wanted to capture the experience of growing up in the church as a queer woman and the ways in which that affected the intimacy within my adult relationships. In this piece, I wanted to capture what it felt like to grow up in the church as a queer woman. The work is layered with both religious and queer symbolism—the lotus-patterned wallpaper, the fig tree, even the color palette. Even after I deconstructed the faith I was raised in, its shadow followed me. Shame made romantic connection feel distant and complicated—even when it wasn’t.
Website: www.riegelstudios.com
IG: @riegelstudios
35x54;
Oil on Canvas;
2025
When I was young, and just beginning to take an interest in art, my first projects were extensions of the things I felt missing in myself. Growing up in a strict, authoritarian religion, I was taught that as a girl, I was destined to be emotional, nurturing, and soft. But I never seemed to fit that mold. The only emotion that ever felt close to the surface was anger—and that wasn’t something I was allowed to show. So I started creating art as a way to give shape to what I couldn’t express.
Now, as I create work as a professional artist, those early impulses still guide me. Themes of mental health, religious trauma, queerness, and authenticity are woven through everything I do.
In this piece, I wanted to capture the experience of growing up in the church as a queer woman and the ways in which that affected the intimacy within my adult relationships. In this piece, I wanted to capture what it felt like to grow up in the church as a queer woman. The work is layered with both religious and queer symbolism—the lotus-patterned wallpaper, the fig tree, even the color palette. Even after I deconstructed the faith I was raised in, its shadow followed me. Shame made romantic connection feel distant and complicated—even when it wasn’t.
Website: www.riegelstudios.com
IG: @riegelstudios
