About Jamie Diaz

Jamie Diaz is a Mexican-American trans woman and artist in Dallas, Texas.

Born in the Midwest in the late 1950s, Jamie grew up in Houston, TX and started drawing and painting as a teenager. She is both a self-taught artist and musician. Shaped by the politics and culture of Houston in the 60s through 90s, Jamie drew inspiration from a variety of sources from underground comics and tattoo artists such as Ed Hardy and Cliff Raven to the Dutch masters—Vermeer, Rembrandt, Van Gogh. In the midst of a struggle with drug addiction, she was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for aggravated robbery. During her incarceration, Jamie began building a large collection of queer-themed paintings with the limited supplies available to her (often making paint brushes out of her own hair).

Her art has inspired many in the LGBTQ+ community by conveying the resilience of the human spirit, with a message of love, hope, and beauty. Jamie creates primarily from her imagination and describes experiencing new ideas like an endless stream of imagery in her mind. Though the subject matter varies widely, Jamie’s work shares a recognizable, unique style. Motifs woven throughout represent themes such as love, queerness, and human suffering. Each piece holds many of the complexities and emotions present in both the queer experience and human condition: good and evil, pleasure and pain, pride and persecution.

Jamie’s debut solo show, “Even Flowers Bleed,” took place fall 2022 at Daniel Cooney Fine Art, NYC and her art has been featured in publications including Artforum, Them, Xtra, and NBC OUT. Jamie’s life and art is also the subject of a short documentary, “Love, Jamie,” which premiered at Outfest LA 2023. In 2024, Jamie was granted parole after nearly 30 years of incarceration. She now lives and paints in the Dallas, TX.