- Ready?

Here we go.

(claps) (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Jennifer Gilli Cahoon, an artist who lives and works in East Providence, Rhode Island.

I'm primarily an acrylic painter who does portraits.

(upbeat music) The drag project is about celebrating and humanizing a group of people, who I feel are being unfairly targeted, dehumanized and mistreated today in our country.

- [Reporter] 50 members of the far right white nationalist groups, Proud Boys and Patriot Front, marched in the streets of Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday.

- [Reporter] A group of men shouted slurs, during a drag queen story hour in San Lorenzo, California.

- The Tennessee Senate passed a bill that would ban drag shows from public spaces.

But also... (gentle music) - What if I was being attacked because I used acrylic paint?

I just happened to like acrylic paint, and that was my expression, and then that laws came out against acrylic painters?

Across the country, we're seeing this groundswell of initiatives that are aimed at dehumanizing people that are just practicing their art form.

(gentle music) For this project, I chose a subject Bianca Del Rio, who was from "RuPaul's Drag Show" and just love her.

But in the process of painting her, it made me think about people that I've known for 30 years.

Friends of mine, involved in this art form of drag, have come under fire.

Nadia was a student of mine in a high school classroom and it's been fun to follow her journey and to see how the art of drag has really helped her come out of her shell and embrace who she is.

And she's wonderful at it.

I work with reference photos and the one of the trickiest thing is picking the right reference photo, something that I feel captures the je ne sais quoi of who that person is.

And at a certain point I abandoned the photograph, and it's just about having a conversation with the painting.

(upbeat music) Didn't really see it in LaDiva, where there's this light coming out from behind her.

This was the first painting I did after Bianca that focused on a local queen.

I met LaDiva when we were in our twenties.

I'm gonna do it as in part of, in their community.

And LaDiva has also been incredibly helpful in terms of helping connect me with other queens who might be interested, helping me find a venue.

So the idea is that they are going to be at The Stable in Providence.

I've already worked with the owner over there, Steve, who's fantastic and very invested in his community, and I'm directing at least 50% of the funds to the community.

Community is incredibly important.

Having a place that you can gather and bond, and laugh and cry and share.

Having a space, almost like a sacred space to do that kind of thing is very important.

Building relationships is key and making art and posting art and engaging on social media, and having shows those a way that I engage with my community, that's meaningful and important.

I'm only one tiny little redheaded woman in Rhode Island, but this is what I do.

If people see a work of art, it makes them feel something or change the way they associate or think about a person, a place, or a group of people.

That's powerful.