Jonathan Torres

I have found an outlet that includes my love for graphic design, illustration, queer culture, and personal experince alike.My boyfriend and I walked down the streets of Los Angeles, holding hands, when a man inside his truck yelled “JOTOS (Faggots)!" at us.I wanted to use this experience as well as my deep interest for visual puns, metaphors, and wordplay to create a line of pins, which showcase cuteness with a wink.Peens was created out of my investigation of gay slurs, such as the ones that were used on us. After investigating the origins of the word “Jotos," I began to learn about other slurs such as: “Mariposon” in Spanish, which translates to "Butterfly-Man". I took this opportunity to take these words and reclaim it as part of my own visual identity as a gay man.As a result of this exploration it led to create many other “peens” that continue to embrace and reclaim slurs, stereotypes, sexuality and stories I’ve experienced as well.“Peens” are the cute, clever, and mischevious enamel pins that you’ll giggle at for that kinky mind of yours.

Although it's not necessarily queer, but contibuted to my queer identity, any mascot from the history of Sanrio has always made me fond of cute, thick lined, simple, Japanese characters.In addtion any of the opening sequences to Cardcaptor Sakura (a very "subtle" queer heavy show) took my breath away with the striking, colorful visuals it opened the show with.

My favorite illustrators are Gengoroh Tagame, Hey Beefcake, Rune Naito, and Mexican Illustrator Radriguez.My favorite graphic designers have to be Zipeng Zhu and Cute Brute.