Michael Valdez

Are we our body? Are we wearing our body? Are we growing our body? Are we being used by our body?

#fineart #contemporaryart #digitalart #newmediaart #3d

This piece in particular has never seen the light of day on Instagram due to content flagging, so I'm happy to share it here.

Wild Boys VIII, 2025

A tableau vivant. The Wild Boys works were inspired on the dream-like sequences of William Burroughs' book of the same name.

#art #queerart #3d #blender3d #zbrush #queerartist #queer #digitalart #contempart #vr #xr #contemporaryart #surreal #digitalartist #fineart #finearts

Silicate Ossification, 3D render/print on paper, 2025

#art #queerart #3d #blender3d #zbrush #queerartist #queer #digitalart #contempart #vr #xr #contemporaryart #surreal #digitalartist #fineart #finearts

Thank you!

Cruxure Coil P2, 3D render as print, 2025

#art #queerart #3d #blender3d #zbrush #queerartist #queer #digitalart #contempart #vr #xr #contemporaryart #surreal #digitalartist #fineart #finearts

Wild Boys, 3D render as print, 2023

#art #queerart #3d #blender3d #zbrush #queerartist #queer #digitalart #contempart #vr #xr #contemporaryart #surreal #digitalartist #fineart #finearts

'Cruxure Coil P2', 3D sculpture/render, 2025

#art #queerart #3d #blender3d #zbrush #queerartist #queer #digitalart #contempart #vr #xr #contemporaryart #surreal #digitalartist #fineart #finearts

'Mnemosynthetic Skin', 2025

#art #queerart #3d #blender3d #zbrush #queerartist #queer #gay #gayart #grindr #scruff #contemporaryart

'Infusion Rite', 2025

#art #queerart #3d #blender3d #zbrush #substancepainter #queerartist #queer #gay #gayart #grindr #scruff #contemporaryart

'Fleshcoil Proximity Violation', 2025

#art #queerart #3d #blender3d #zbrush #queerartist #queer #gay #gayart #grindr #scruff #contemporaryart

preach 🙏

Anyhow: #TeamOnyaNurve .

So let's not pretend Suzie left because she flopped. She broke the fantasy. She refused the fiction. That's the real crime in a show built on selling palatable rebellion.

This is not only about Suzie. It’s about how the show handles queens who bring contradiction, dissonance, or actual critique. They call it a celebration of diversity, but the second someone steps outside the box—actually outside it, not in a brandable “quirky” way—they get framed as a liability.

Max broke the format by being too composed and too conceptually rigid—gone. The Vixen named structural racism on camera—vilified. Tammie Brown broke the fourth wall and got treated like a punchline for a decade.

Not because she was the worst—plenty have done worse and been safe. But because she refused the assignment. And the show doesn’t know what to do with refusal except eliminate it. We’ve seen this before.

The challenge wasn’t “showgirl.” The real challenge was: will you play RuPaul’s game? Will you smile at a fantasy you don’t believe in? Will you serve marketable joy on demand? Suzie didn’t. And the second she said she wasn’t excited for Vegas, the outcome was sealed.

Suzie flopped. That part isn’t up for debate. But these fans acting like that’s the full story is just #DragRace reductionism™. A queen fails a week’s challenge → queen goes home. Neat, tidy, apolitical, right? Except that’s not how this show works.

So let's not pretend Suzie left because she flopped. She broke the fantasy. She refused the fiction. That's the real crime in a show built on selling palatable rebellion.

This is not only about Suzie. It’s about how the show handles queens who bring contradiction, dissonance, or actual critique. They call it a celebration of diversity, but the second someone steps outside the box—actually outside it, not in a brandable “quirky” way—they get framed as a liability.

Max broke the format by being too composed and too conceptually rigid—gone. The Vixen named structural racism on camera—vilified. Tammie Brown broke the fourth wall and got treated like a punchline for a decade.

Not because she was the worst—plenty have done worse and been safe. But because she refused the assignment. And the show doesn’t know what to do with refusal except eliminate it. We’ve seen this before.

The challenge wasn’t “showgirl.” The real challenge was: will you play RuPaul’s game? Will you smile at a fantasy you don’t believe in? Will you serve marketable joy on demand? Suzie didn’t. And the second she said she wasn’t excited for Vegas, the outcome was sealed.

RuPaul's Drag Race has shown once again with Suzie Toot's elimination that this competition is not about finding "America's Next Drag Superstar", but "World Of Wonder's Next Milkcow". A marketing challenge, really? It's as trite as when they did that TikTok challenge. Art counts for nothing.

No accidentally searching for something and ending up somewhere totally unexpected. All rounded corners and predictability now. Thing is, it wasn't necessarily good or safe back then: but at least it was honest. And it made me, literally and figuratively speaking multilingual

I miss the old internet. The one from the 90s/early 2000s. It was the wild west, before they tamed it with user-friendliness. It was assymetric, messy, weird. I feel for these kids learning from conspiracy theorists from all political sides. I miss chainmails that confronted me with depraved images.

selfie

I'm always so shy on social media to show my face lol so I'm tryna remedy that

#gay #queer #gayartist #gayman #gayselfie #lgbtq #gayotter

My students want to make art for their 3D sculpting assignment instead of video game characters and I couldn't be more excited🥲 I'm seeing Leigh Bowery, neoclassical sculpting and Jesse Kanda as references. Let's gooooo

also that monologue was WILD and it's probably one of the best things I've seen on television. this season is great. don't complain that it's boring because it has the same basic buildup as the previous two seasons. y'all delusional