UNSUPERVISED - Star Love - Queer Devastation wall sculpture

Star Love - Oakland, CA.  Mixed MEdia Studio Artist Estela Furtado (Star Love) is a non-binary, queer, fine art sculptor, painter, and teaching artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Earning a Bachelor of Arts in Sculpture from the California College of the Arts, their background spans fine arts, large-scale public sculpture collaboration—including contributions to the Koilos project for Burning Man—and multidisciplinary creative production. As the founder of Star Arts, Estela provides mobile and on-site art instruction across the Bay Area, guiding students of all ages through sculpture, painting, drawing, mosaics, and interactive art workshops. Blending their roots in traditional fine arts with community-focused teaching, their work emphasizes hands-on artistic exploration, creative skill-building, and collaborative expression.

This piece embodies the profound grief and exhaustion of the queer and trans community today. It stands as an emotional testament to the heavy toll exacted by oppressively rolled-back laws and policies from the current administration. As a non-binary queer artist, this piece channels the collective devastation of witnessing our hard-won freedom and safety continually stripped away. More than just a reaction to systemic oppression and rising hate, it is a visual expression of the paralyzing fear within our community—where mere existence is treated as a threat, and navigating daily life becomes an act of survival. This work represents the deep sorrow of the massive exodus of folks fleeing the country in search of safety, and serves as a vital element in my own grieving process to process this harsh reality.