Lillie is an artist whose work embodies the profound beauty of transformation and reclamation. As a transgender woman, her life’s navigation has involved “dismantling and rebuilding cycles—both internal and external”. This journey of self-discovery and renewal informs her art, which focuses on transforming what was once discarded into something vibrant and purposeful.
Steph Patzer is a self-taught artist whose relationship with art began early and has remained a constant thread throughout her life. While her creative practice has ebbed and flowed over the years, art has always served as a vital outlet—one rooted in instinct, experimentation, and personal expression.
Tami Nebesniak, 51, grew up on a family farm in Nebraska and discovered her love for sewing through her grandmother, Anna. Encouraged by her early passion, she studied sewing throughout high school and initially enrolled at Stephens College for Fashion Design before ultimately pursuing a degree in Psychology. She married in 1999 and has two adult children, 24 & 22. Tami’s oldest child has been transitioning since college.
Unity (they/them & he/him) is an artist that creatures’ surreal decorative works that focus on the human body, decomposition, environmental change, and queer identity.
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.
Once there was a child who swallowed colors. I don’t mean it ate a broccoli stem and turned green. I mean, this child really gulped colors, and they became part of it.
Jenny is a Midwest artist who specializes in book page fandom art. She has made her career and business in the Fandom Nerd world. When not geeking out with others at comic cons you will find her in her cozy “cottage” home with her family and two pugs Fili and Kili.
Salem, 21, He/They/It is a queer disabled self taught artist who specializes in digital art.
They enjoy dark color pallets along with drawing and designing characters. He has been learning how to sew and make political patches. They have also been having a rough patch with art lately and what it means to him. It’s been hard for them to feel joy right now, and it has probably been the same for other queer people. Making something so meaningful to them felt scary and he procrastinated it a lot.
Roselle J. Ledesma was born in San Diego, California in the early 1970s and moved to Bellevue, Nebraska at the age of two. The youngest of five children in a Mexican American family, Roselle grew up in a creative household where art and music were part of everyday life. Her father, a musician, introduced her to the drums at a young age, and she quickly took to the instrument—teaching herself by playing along to the radio. By the time she was three years old, she was already playing drums, and that early passion would shape the course of her life.
Kacie Ware is a multidisciplinary artist based in Omaha, Nebraska. She works across canvas painting, face painting, textile art, and culinary creation, embracing art as something that lives both on walls and around kitchen tables. Whether stitching thread into fabric, painting joy onto a child’s face, or preparing a meal to gather people together, her work centers on connection, color, and care.
Aho. My name is Curtis Alexander, Jr. My pronouns are He/She/Bitch. I am an enrolled member of the Omaha Tribe. I live in Sioux City, Iowa. I am a father. I am a grandfather. And I am, above all else, an artist in constant motion. In 2018, my drag persona Citrus won Miss Sioux City Supreme, becoming the first Native American to hold the title. Citrus is not a mask. She is a prism.
I’m Abz Cameron (they/them), a multidisciplinary artist, actor, drag performer, and teaching artist based in Omaha, Nebraska. As a queer and neurodiverse artist, creating has always been one of the main ways I understand myself and connect with other people. My work lives somewhere between visual art, performance, and community storytelling and comes from the questions I have asked myself repeatedly: who am I, and who are we when we actually let ourselves be seen?
Bastian O’Gorman (he/him) is a trans poet, writer and embodiment guide whose work lives at the intersection of grief, transition, and reclamation. His writing traces the quiet ache of becoming—and the fierce beauty of choosing oneself.
Sarah Rowe is an interdisciplinary artist based in Omaha, Nebraska. Her work spans painting, installation, and performance influenced by Lakota ceremony. She holds a BA in Studio Art from Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri. She is Lako-ta and an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.
E Elder, better known as Pavé Pandemonium [née von Prisma] is a trans masculine artist and drag entertainer from Lincoln, Nebraska. Raised on high fantasy and Peter Max, he incorporates all of his creative flights of fancy seamlessly together on and off stage.
Alek Chavez is a 25 year old screen printer based in Omaha, Nebraska. Obtaining experience with Intaglio, Linoleum, and screen printing, he pursued his passion with screen printing full time. After 8 years of screen printing under his belt, he continues to utilize his screen printing press to diversify his media.
Art has always been an important part of my therapeutic process. It allows me to tap into those vulnerable spaces gaining a deeper understanding of myself and the challenges I meet in life. Collaging has helped me navigate the layers of feelings I have experienced in these last few years with our state legislature. I begin with collecting images that speak to some part of me. I don’t always know why I am drawn to the image when I gather it, but I collect them in piles knowing that one day they will become part of a new story meant for my understanding.