Painting

Blurred Lines

Rielle Bohnet

Exhibition

See it On Campus: Level 1

D1363, the nook left of the sculpture area entrance

Visitor Info

Senior Project

Intersections of Queerness and Adolescence

Girl’s Night, 27.5″x 19″, 2025

Liminal Relationships, 27.5″x 19″, 2025

Artist Statement

My senior project, Blurred Lines, uses watercolour and gouache on paper, layering imagery through transparency, collage, and obscuring and revealing. The imagery and themes I work with are pulled from my personal experiences of growing up queer. They deal with my memories from this time, addressing specific events and feelings I experienced. These works construct imagined spaces and subjects to represent these topics and their nuances. The layering, transparency, and redaction of elements speak to the nature of these memories; how they fade, are forgotten, and can be transformed over time.

The pieces displayed in the grad show, Girl’s Night (left) and Liminal Relations (right), both delve into my formative queer friendships and relationships. They evoke budding romance, but also the often confusing nature of navigating young queer relationships. I have many beautiful memories from these relationships, but also many blurred boundaries between platonic and romantic love. I wanted to explore both of these extremes, the good and bad, within these two pieces

Mind’s Eye expresses my perception of self as a queer teen growing up. Insecurities, growth, and the various facets of self, both new and abandoned.

Dalhousie represents my complex feelings about my hometown and neighbourhood. As a source of comfort and nostalgia, in contrast to the lingering sense of not fitting in.

Mind’s Eye, 30″x 22″, 2025

Dalhousie, 30″x 22″, 2025

Related & Previous Work

The Birdhouse

The Birdhouse is a queer event space and a cornerstone of the Vancouver LGBTQIA+ community. It is a place I have a lot of love and respect for. This painting series is a sort of tribute to the space, attempting to capture its vivid energy. The paintings, based on photos I took in the space, focus on various aspects of The Birdhouse: lights, colours, patrons, events, decor, etc. This small project is my love letter to The Birdhouse and the Vancouver queer community.

Bar, 12″x 9″, 2025