Collins shared the finished piece on Twitter Tuesday, tweeting, “My portrait of @Caitlyn_Jenner made using the death threats and hate tweets she received after coming out #art”.
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Collins recreated Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover with the text of the hate-filled tweets Jenner received, hand-writing them on to a canvas. And his work shows why the suicide and murder rates of trans people are so unfathomably high.
Taking to Twitter on Wednesday night, the former Olympian praised the Manchester-based artist. Caitlyn was mocked and threatened by thousands social media messages. “I think “inspiration” gives the idea of energy and motivation”.
‘It seems to have spread really quickly and the responses are on the whole really rather positive.
“For every person who sees it another person is shown the persecution and real danger trans people face”, he writes. But I find the more hate mail I receive – the better job I am probably doing.
Collins began following Caitlyn’s transition on twitter after she revealed that she’s transitioning.
He hopes his painting will represent the difficulties trans people face in every day life, and that people looking at it in the future will be able to see how far society has progressed in dealing with LGBT issues.
In fact, Collins himself experienced anguish and pain just reading the hateful things thrown at Caitlyn. He says he started working at 5PM on Friday until sunrise on Saturday, drinking half a bottle of whiskey “to get through it” because he couldn’t “have written so much hate sober”.
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While Caitlyn has not reached out personally to Conor, the artist was just excited that she had seen his work.
