Collin Veenstra (Collz – they/them pronouns) is a genderqueer, neurodivergent visual artist and youth educator living in Tacoma, Washington on Puyallup – Coast Salish land.

Collin fell in love with drawing while growing up in Boise, Idaho, and found their passion working in youth programming, advocacy, and interpersonal violence prevention education after graduating from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.

Collz explores themes like identity, affirmation, mental health, boundaries, identity respect, and consent in their works, with influences equal parts Dad Jokes and Classic Surrealism. While their oil paintings focus more on mythology and traditional technique, Collin’s recent multimedia works highlight pop imagery, absurdism, puns, and identity-affirming messages. They hope their work sends some affirmation, solidarity and love to youth navigating their own identities and sparks conversations and education for adults working to support them.

Collin was a 2017 recipient of the City of Tacoma’s Tacoma Artist Initiative Program, creating their first solo show that paired pop art with prevention education messaging in 2018, “Stop Chicken Me Out!” From 2016-2021, Collin was the founder and director of the Peer Education Empowerment League (PEEL) – an intergenerational community project with queer and allied youth in Tacoma about preventing interpersonal violence. They currently work as both an artist and youth educator in Washington State.

Collin provides regular consultations and trainings in the community on trauma-informed youth programming, art education, adultism, LGBTQ youth advocacy, and more. In Spring 2019, Collin was awarded the Visionary Voice award for Washington State by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC).