Dean Shinner (he/him) is a transgender printmaker and artist from Bothell. As a lifelong east-side resident, the chance to exhibit his work, and his queerness, close to home is very much treasured! He received his B.F.A. in Fine Arts in 2021, and has been running his own print business, Foxhilt, since 2024. His work is inspired by a lifelong love of history, folklore, and magic..
Constantia Memoriae
2026
relief print on paper
In February of this year, the Pride flag was removed by the National Park Service from the Stonewall National Monument – under the guidance, it was stated, of a new directive on flags from the Trump administration. There are worse attacks on the queer community every day by this administration, especially my fellow transgender folks, but the removal of the flag – a symbol of the very essence of queer pride and resistance – felt like an outright erasure, a slap in the face to the purpose of the Stonewall monument and the people it commemorates.
“Constantia Memoriae” (Latin: The Constance of Memory) is a direct response to that attack – a monument on paper to queer symbols that have carried us before the flag, and persisted even when it was removed.
Historically, queer people have used flowers to speak of themselves, and of their love, when the pride flag had yet to exist, and those blossom around the empty pole. Carnations, lavender, violets, and pansies flourish, and the year of the Stonewall riots is inscribed on the base. I was inspired by the fact that the monument itself is a garden, that queer people once again gathered to resist this action, growing despite the administrative pressure.
The flag was reinstated in April 2026, but as we face renewed and persistent pressure, this piece now serves as a reminder of the power of its near-loss – and the iconography of resistance, of our beauty, that we’ve always reached for and will always make anew.