Mariska was the first drag queen I had met in Paris. I was at a club night, where the room had been changed to resemble an airport. There were ‘arrivals’ and ‘departures’ up on the wall consistently changing times. At this night, all the stewardesses were drag queens, and I immediately went over to talk to them about my project. Mariska was the first to accept, and I met with her shortly the next day. Mariska out of drag was completely unrecognizable, and it took me a bit before I could place who I was talking to. In drag, Mariska was a supermodel female, and out of drag he was a masculine fitness model.     Mariska was born in Zaragoza, Spain to a military family. Hearing this initially I was already predicting how it was going to play out, and I WAS SO WRONG. Mariska’s father, who is in the army, loved his son and his son’s creativeness. His mother, equally as accepting, raised Mariska in the arts, and when he came out, they loved him regardless. His upbringing shows in every manner of his being. He’s is pure concentrated sunshine. Their story was one of the happiest ones, as they were supported so well by their community. As an American learning about European culture, I was shocked to find out that Spain was one of the top countries in LGBT acceptance in the EU. Furthermore, France was far more conservative and less accepting of others in regards to gender/sexuality.. Which just sounds so crazy considering the HEAVY stereotype about French culture being synonymous with love and romance. This fact alone, turned my entire attention to Paris so I could study more performers about their experiences, and paint them as a global showcase to rest of the world on how things REALLY are. The purpose of the project was to bring LGBTQ stories in a visual scope, so that everyone else could see the humanity in things that don’t necessarily represent them. Paris was to have the same objective, but it became about something more… it was about showcasing the reality of different cultures and how they truly respond to LGBTQ issues. Mariska’s interview would suddenly blossom dozens of different queens throughout the city. I am so thankful for them.

Mariska是我在巴黎遇到的第一個變裝皇后。我在一個布置成機場的俱樂部之夜。牆上有“到達”和“離開”不斷變化的時間。這一夜，空姐們全是變裝皇后，我趕緊過去和她們聊聊我的項目。Mariska是第一個接受的，第二天我很快就見到了她。 Mariska 完全無法辨認，我花了一點時間才確定我在和誰說話。在變裝後，Mariska是一位超模女性，而在變裝前，他是一名男性健身模特。Mariska出生於西班牙薩拉戈薩(Zaragoza,Spain)軍人家庭。最初聽到我已經在預測故事會如何發展，但我錯了。Mariska 的父親在軍隊中，愛他的兒子和自身的創造力。他的母親同樣接受，在藝術方面撫養了Mariska，當他出櫃時，他們無論如何都愛他。他的教養表現使他存在的面面俱到，他是純粹的集中陽光。他們的故事是最幸福的故事之一，因為他們得到了社區大力支持。作為一名了解歐洲文化的美國人，我震驚地發現西班牙是歐盟接 LGBT人數最多的國家之一。此外，法國在性別/性行為方面更加保守，更不接受其他人，考慮到法國文化與愛情和浪漫同義的沉重刻板印象，這聽起來太瘋狂了。僅憑這一事實，我就將全部注意力轉移到了巴黎，這樣我就可以研究更多表演者的經歷，並向世界其他地方展示關於他們(變裝皇后)真實的樣貌。該項目的目的是將LGBTQ 故事帶入感官世界，以便其他所有人都能在不一定代表他們的事物中更可以了解他們。巴黎有同樣的目標，但它變得更多，是關於展示不同文化的現實以及他們如何真正回應 LGBTQ 問題。 Mariska的採訪一下子讓整個城市的數十位不同的女王綻放光彩。我非常感謝他們。