Stained-Glass

 Hello everyone, the following photos are some of the stained-glass projects I’ve completed. I have created these as commissions, gifts, and as personal projects. If you want to know a little about me, I’m a junior at UW majoring in psychology and working towards two minors, painting and sociology. As for the stained-glass pieces, the first two are quite straightforward but the last one has a story connected to it.

Ally Flag: I created this ally flag as a commission in 2020.

 

LGBTQIA+ Flag: I made this one for myself and am currently making another one as a commission.

 

Unicorn:

I created this stained-glass unicorn during the lockdown in 2020, I was a senior in high school and decided to create gifts for some of the teachers who had supported me the most. This one in particular was a gift for the art teacher. For some context, the small town I grew up in is very conservative, anti-LGBTQIA+, racist, sexist, and so forth. Queer people in this town often struggled. A few people were kicked out of their homes once their family found out and/or were physically beaten. Of course, this wasn’t true for most people, but this happened to some of my friends and classmates.

There were subtle (and not so subtle) signs of welcome in safe places such as homes, classrooms, therapy offices, businesses, and more. I got the idea for this unicorn from my mother. She is a mental health therapist and has subtle rainbow decorations in her office to let people know she’s an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community. This has helped several of her clients. I made a unicorn because at the time unicorns were a running joke in the art classroom, so it blended in nicely. I added a rainbow horn so LGBTQIA+ students would know this was a safe place for them and that they could talk to the teacher if they had any issues with bullying, homelife, etc. I really hoped this would help students.

Unfortunately, after I graduated from high school, the art teacher wasn’t as supportive as he had been in previous years, especially to transgender students. Students started trashing other teachers ally symbols and flags, posters, etc. They were promoting “super straight” and bullying students who didn’t agree. Some teachers left, some tried to support LGBTQIA+ students, and some teachers didn’t do anything, and the art teacher was one of them. His classroom was no longer a safe place. I was really disappointed when I heard about this, it felt like a betrayal.

Part of me wanted to remove the last paragraph because it doesn’t end on a happy note. But unfortunately, it’s the truth. Luckily, he doesn’t have the unicorn hanging in his classroom anymore, so at least students looking for a safe space won’t seek help in his classroom.

If anyone is interested in more of my artworks or would like a commission (coming soon) then visit my Instagram page @artsy_hannahwyos. Thank you for reading 😊.