J. Ariaz, Scarlett with Self-Portrait as Robert, 2022
Scarlett | In Conversation pairs recent drawings by Scarlett, an artist and writer based in the Midwest, with portraits made by longtime friend and fellow native Kansan Jeremiah Ariaz. Scarlett’s prolific, ecstatic drawing practice describes the depths of her interior experience as a transgender woman in rural America. Scenes of exuberant dreamscapes, scathing political satire, dystopian terror, and anxious revelations are rendered with exacting visual density: equal parts sharp humor, delight, and despair. Over the last ten years, collaborative photographic portrait-making has become a ritual of this intergenerational friendship –– a tender storytelling tool –– a way to understand lived experience, alienation, expression, and belonging. After thirty years of conversation and a decade of collaboration, they share a window to this dialogue.
The Front, New Orleans, LA, March 2022
J. Ariaz, Migrating Birds, Cheyenne Bottoms, 2021
J. Ariaz, Scarlett (presenting as Robert), 2020
Scarlett, Untitled, 2012
Scarlett, Untitled, 2011
Scarlett, The Last Supper, 2016
J. Ariaz, Scarlett, 2017
Scarlett, Untitled, 2011
J. Ariaz, Cheyenne Bottoms, Winter Morning, 2021
J. Ariaz, Scarlett, Former Air-to-Ground Gunnery Range, 2020
Cheyenne Bottoms, approximately 5 miles northeast of Great Bend, is the largest wetland in the interior United States. From 1943 – 1947 it served as an air-to-ground gunnery range for U.S. Air Force pilots, flying Kansas-made bombers. The 14,000 acre site Included a bombing range, rifle and machine gun ranges, and chemical weapons training area.
In the 1980’s and 90’s, Scarlett would visit this landscape daily, feeling safe to briefly wear dresses in what is now a vast wildlife refuge. In a 1987 attempt to escape her internal conflict and save her marriage, she drove to this site at the southern perimeter of the refuge and dumped all of Scarlett’s belongings – clothing and other ephemera – from the trunk of her car. Shortly after, her marriage failed and she was divorced, with two daughters who she would take custody of and continue to raise as a single parent.
J. Ariaz, Scarlett's Closet, 2020
Scarlett, Who Littered Our Symbol of Freedom, 2020
Scarlett, Untitled, 2013
Scarlett, Untitled, 2016
J. Ariaz, Scarlett, Self Portraits In Dress and Combat Fatigues, from Transgender Archive, 2020
Scarlett has amassed a vast collection of materials she calls the “Transgender Archives” including, newspaper clippings, stories and pictures from the internet, and numerous personal effects that are filed into a collection of three-ring binders.
Seen on the left is a commercial studio portrait of Scarlett from the 1990’s. On the right is a portrait of them in combat fatigues from the Vietnam War. “Both pictures have a flair of performance,” Scarlett points out, as we look through the archive on her kitchen table.
J. Ariaz, Cheyenne Bottoms, Winter, 2022
J. Ariaz, Welcome Aboard, Scarlett and Marcella, 2017
Scarlett, Untitled, 2011
J. Ariaz, Scarlett and Marcella, 2017
Scarlett is now happily married to Marcella, a former nun who lived much of her life in a convent. Strengthened by the younger generation of queer people, the shifting balance in media representation of LGBTQ experiences, and a determination to be her authentic self, she is beginning to live a more open life. Only recently, at the age of 77, did she begin publicly identifying as Scarlett, no matter what she is wearing or how others perceive her identity.
Together, Scarlett and Marcella host tea parties and occasionally travel together, as they cautiously navigate a world that does not always feel safe.
Scarlett, Moses Smites the Rock To open A Wall of Water, 2016
Scarlett, Untitled, 2012
J. Ariaz, Scarlett, Cheyenne Bottoms, 2020
Scarlett, Weight of the Universe, 2016
Scarlett, Drop City, 2021
Scarlett, Nadene Out, 2015
J. Ariaz, Dress, 2020
Scarlett, Sissy Sent to Heaven, 2016
Scarlett, Untitled, 2011
J. Ariaz, Cheyenne Bottoms, 2021
Scarlett, Watermelon Thief, 2018
J. Ariaz, A Version of What I'd Look Like at a Younger Age, from Transgender Archive, 2018
Scarlett, Untitled, 2017
J. Ariaz, Scarlett in 1987 Chrysler Town and Country, 2020
J. Ariaz, No Poets Allowed, 2020
“No Poets Allowed” mimics “No Trespassing” signs commonly painted on old tires and hung from fence posts in rural America. Found along a gravel road approximately halfway between their home and Cheyenne Bottoms, it is one of a series of tire signs painted by Scarlett and hung in Barton County. At the time of the photograph, this sign had been displayed, perhaps unnoticed, for approximately 20 years.
Scarlett, Untitled, 2011
J. Ariaz, Scarlett, Cheyenne Bottoms, 2020
J. Ariaz, Cheyenne Bottoms, Winter, 2021
Scarlett, Untitled, 2011
Scarlett, Not In My Name, (No Date)
Scarlett, Nadine Waits For Her Boyfriend, 2017
Scarlett, Even During the Worst of the Blitz, Albert Stayed Deep in His Floating Tomato Garden, 2015
J. Ariaz, Scarlett at Window, 2020
J. Ariaz, Home, 2020
J. Ariaz, A Boy In A Dress Isn't Funny Anymore, From Transgender Archive, 2018
Scarlett, Artist Ponders, Wanders and Wonders, 2017
Scarlett, Untitled, 2013
J. Ariaz, Scarlett on Bed, 2022