I am Paul Gravett, a Vancouver visual artist.

My practice — The Queer Thread — centres on stitching embroidery directly into vintage mid-century gay male photographs: images from an era when desire was coded, queer lives were censored, and men who loved men lived largely outside the official record. By intervening in these surfaces, I reclaim what was obscured and turn acts of looking into acts of care.

The work draws on source photographs from Bob Mizer and the Athletic Model Guild, Danny Fitzgerald, and the Western Photography Guild. My artistic references range more widely: the sensory directness of Hockney's paintings, the pattern and meaning in William Morris's textiles, the erotic candour of C.P. Cavafy, the quiet intimacy of Duane Michals. Work that finds beauty and desire without apology.

To look at these men with tenderness rather than surveillance is itself a political act. These pieces are part of a longer conversation — one that recognises queer lives not only in moments of celebration but in the quieter work of remembering those left out of the official record.

Before The Queer Thread, I worked as an award-winning abstract photographer, recognized internationally and exhibited across North America, Europe, and beyond. That practice gave me a deep understanding of how images hold meaning and how a viewer's attention can be shaped — something that runs through everything I make now.

I live in Vancouver with my husband of 36 years.