Using Art to Find Community and Oneself: The Art of Aspen Tracey

Aspen Tracey (they/she) is a Salt Lake-based visual artist, specializing in oil painting and graphic design. Their work is uniquely striking, utilizing a blend of traditional art with digital design–and as a queer artist, their creative work is an integral part of understanding their own identity and building a meaningful community in the Salt Lake area. 

Growing up, Aspen was surrounded by many queer figures in their personal life. “My aunt is a lesbian, my other aunt is bisexual, and I have a cousin who's gay,” they explain. “It's just always been like that in my family, and it always really strengthened me.” Sexuality was not a loaded topic in Aspen’s young mind—and while some members of her family took time to come around to their identity, Aspen reflects positively on a childhood of acceptance and openness.

After spending most of their childhood in the West Valley/Rose Park area, Aspen’s life took a turn at fourteen when they moved to South Jordan. “When my mom moved out to South Jordan, it was a crazy culture shock for me,” they reflect. The change in scenery introduced Aspen to facets of life in Utah that they had not previously experienced. “I genuinely didn't know what Mormons were until I moved out to South Jordan!” they elaborate.

“After moving, I went to a new high school, and it was so miserable. It was genuinely the worst possible experience you could imagine for a queer person.” A childhood of acceptance and openness suddenly transformed into an adolescence painted with friction. Despite this change of environment, Aspen continued to embrace their sexuality as the years passed by. “I was very openly out in general—it was always kind of like that for me.” 

After finishing high school, they packed their bags and relocated to Portland, where they attended art school. “Ultimately, art school didn't really work out the way that I wanted it to,” Aspen reflects. “So I ended up back in Utah, but this time in Salt Lake City.” Upon returning to the Salt Lake area, Aspen felt the freedom to dive completely into their art—opening the doors to connection, exploration, and growth. 

Building Community Through Art

Finding themselves back in Salt Lake City, Aspen searched for a place to pursue their art—bringing them to the Guthrie Art Studios. Offering studio spaces to Salt Lake City’s artists, the Guthrie has served as home base for various Utah creatives since 1962.

“A really important moment for me was when I did my first art show at the Guthrie,” Aspen reflects. “Going into the space, I was so nervous and so anxious because I had never done anything like that before. But I ended up meeting just so many people through that experience.” The Guthrie provided a space for Aspen to not only create meaningful art, but to share that art with an audience that genuinely connected with it. With people flooding into the space to engage with the art and artists, Aspen was able to make meaningful connections and build a community—one which opened many doors for her. ”I found a really awesome creative community, I found new roommates, and I found people who don’t limit me.” 

For Aspen, pursuing their art at the Guthrie was the key to finding a meaningful, like-minded community that not only inspired them to keep creating, but also showed them what it meant to belong. “I realized there that I was really good at making friends, and that I was actually very capable of being a part of something.” Over time, art became an integral portal to connection, to community, and to togetherness. 

Creativity as a Means of Self-Exploration

Aspen’s passion for art led them directly to a community in Salt Lake City that uplifts one another each day—but art’s positive influence didn’t end there. Ultimately, creativity for Aspen represents a crucial form of self-exploration and processing, giving them unique tools to understand themself on a greater level. “Art has always a way for me to decompress from everything around me and express myself in a way that never really made sense to me in my body,” they explain.

Particularly when it comes to unpacking gender, creativity has been an essential tool in Aspen’s life. “It's definitely a hard thing to express to people, especially if you're somebody who's never experienced gender dysphoria or anything like that. But it's so powerful just knowing that I now have the language and the tools and the information around me to understand it all better.” As they navigate the nuances of gender, art provides a toolkit to unpack complicated feelings and ideas that arise. “I tell myself: it's okay that you have weird feelings,” Aspen says. “We're just gonna draw it out.”

Importantly, Aspen highlights that it isn’t just visual art that gives them the tools of self-exploration. Rather, creativity in any and all forms function as tools of introspection and discovery, in Aspen’s eyes. In order to learn more about what these processes look like for different people, Aspen created a zine centered around a compelling question: what is creativity?

Through this project, Aspen reached out to other Salt Lake artists and asked questions like:

• What do you define creativity as?

• What is the inspiration?

• What do you think causes creativity to ebb and flow?

“It was just a really sweet way for me to get in touch with everybody in my community and pick people's brains,” they explain. “I love a really good, deep conversation; and ultimately that was a really good thing that I needed for my body.” As Aspen continues to create art, they understand more about themself and the growing community around them. 

To keep up with Aspen’s work or to reach out with any freelance inquiries, follow them on Instagram at @starsonmysocks.