Bart Vargas is a Visual Artist, Educator, and Advocate from Bellevue, Nebraska. He received his BFA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and his MFA from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He has exhibited nationally and internationally, and his work is in many collections worldwide. His works have been featured in many publications, including Sculpture Magazine, New American Paintings, and HGTV Magazine. Vargas lives in Omaha, Nebraska. Vargas serves as a Professor and Chair of Visual Arts/Graphic Arts Program at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa, as well as on several local boards of non-profit organizations.
I am a cis-gendered, mixed-blood, Mexican American male, yet the experience of living in the United States of America has made navigating my own identity something that I have struggled with most of my life. In all honesty, I was in graduate school and in my mid-thirties before I really felt “comfortable in my own skin”.
All my life, I have had friends and family members who were part of the queer
community. Some of them struggled with identity issues just like me, yet others knew exactly who they were from a very young age. That is why I have always been an ally and advocate for the queer community and have supported my friends and family members in anything they needed to do to feel “comfortable in their own skin”.
We all exist, and I believe it’s a basic human right to be who we really are. That is why I will always support and advocate for gender affirming care.
