Rising Stars: Meet Alex Barr

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Barr.

Alex, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Growing up in a military family, I moved around a lot when I was a kid Every 2 or 3 years, my family would pack up everything and move to another base, another state. Every passing move, I grew more introverted, shy, and a bit withdrawn. Learning how to socialize and make friends became very difficult for me, so I started teaching myself how to draw as my way of communicating with people. In a way, my art and myself are a huge patchwork quilt of all the places I’ve lived and all of the communities and social spheres I’ve spent time developing in.

Specifically, I got into making comics because of the way they made me feel when I was a kid and checking them out at the library. I really enjoyed personal stories, especially ones about being queer. It always felt like the artist was telling me that they saw I existed, and I could see pieces of myself in them and the stories. I wanted to make other people be able to feel that way as well and make them feel seen and understood, so I started making my queer little comic. That’s where I am today!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I definitely realize that I have been EXTREMELY privileged when it comes to my art career. Even though I’m the only artist in my family, had to make most of my own connections and teach myself most of what I know – I do come from a supportive family who does their best to understand and support me. My mom is my #1 fan 100%, and my fiancée is right there with her. I’ve also got a younger brother who looks up to me and also loves art, and I love connecting with him on that level.

Any of the intense art phases I went through, my mom was already right there. Comics? You got it. Tattoo apprenticeship? Hell yeah. I think she still has a lot of my childhood art saved as well. And my fiancée. She’s just incredible and I am so thankful for her unconditional support in my pursuit of things that I feel passion for.

My road has not been without its difficulties, though. Any artist knows that the lack of job security, lack of certainty for success, is really scary. Especially if you’re totally freelance like me. All of my finances, advertising, gigs, jobs, etc., all come from me having to knock on metaphorical doors constantly. I’ve gotta be my own boss, and my own hype man, and my own annoying assistant manager all in one.

For each success I’ve had, is about five rejections and mess-ups. It’s scary! I’m launching a webcomic in December that I’ve been working on for over a year, and I have no idea how it’s going to do, and it’s been giving me stress-induced stomach bees for like, three months now. I keep throwing myself out there, though. Always trying.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I like to think that what I’m known for is “cute art with a queer cause”. I am a butch, masculine lesbian, and I love soft, happy colors. I like to see the goodness and the love in the world and portray my own world where people are safe to be themselves. My visual art comes from a place of love in my heart. As cheesy as that sounds, it’s true! I don’t want to spend all day dwelling on the things that upset and hurt me, so I take that energy and spend it on weaving this web of an accepting dream world.

I specialize in visual art, comics, and making funky little wearable pride-related items. I like reclaiming words that have been used against me and spinning them into something positive and bright. My comic, “Pink Sugar”, is a graphic novel and webcomic I’ve been working on for a little over a year now and is stuffed full of characters that I got tired of waiting around for other people to write and make. It’s a queer, fantasy romance comic that features a butch lesbian and her friends working on overcoming trauma from their past lives and learning to love themselves and those around them. It’s my healing.

I don’t know what “sets me apart from others”, because I am inspired by other artists ALL the time. Everything I see, I find a way to love and internalize it and store it away for later reference. However, I am always just trying to make art that feels the most authentic to myself at the time, and I am always doing my best on this journey. And I think that’s good enough.

I think something that makes me memorable as an artist for other people is that I do work which makes them feel seen. Every art show and convention I go to, people just like me come up and always look so excited. Especially the younger queer kids. I think they see a role model in me, and they’re excited to meet an older queer who’s thriving and surviving. That’s pretty badass.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Ooooh yeah. Oh gosh. High School #2 that I attended for three years was in a small town of about 4,000 people. I had a graduating class of, geez, 72 people maybe? Something like that. I had teachers tell me that I was the first “out” lesbian in the high school’s history. Bittersweet because it hadn’t really been my choice. I was outed almost right after moving to town by a friend on accident and word quickly spread, and that was kinda scary!

I founded the GSA there, which took a LOT of work and convincing. But I had a few teachers in my corner, so they helped me pull strings and made sure I knew my rights as a student. My art teacher had also given me my own art display shelf by the school’s auditorium because I was constantly churning out cool projects, and it got censored a lot by the principal because he wasn’t the biggest fan of all my queer stuff. But I kept trying. My folks raised me to be persistent, so I was!

I had to take a lot of risks then. I don’t have to take as many now because I live in a bigger city and I’m an adult, so things are (generally) safer now. I’m not in as many weird situations as I used to be, but there’s still weird moments. Men on the street aren’t the biggest fans of the way I look. And there have been art shows in where I’ve been gawked at like a freak show. But I can’t, and won’t, censor myself or my art to make people comfortable.

All I know is I have the right to be myself just as much as the next person, and older queer folk from generations past had to fight tooth and nail for me to be able to exist like this. I don’t take their hard work for granted. They made those risks for me, so I’m gonna take those risks every day existing as a butch lesbian artist living my truth.

Contact Info:

• Email: alex@dulceskull.com
• Website: dulceskull.com
• Instagram: dulce.skull
• Facebook: dulceskull
• Twitter: dulceskull