Collin Veenstra (Collz – they/them pronouns) is a genderqueer, neurodivergent visual artist and youth educator based in Tacoma, WA. With influences equal parts Dad Jokes and classic Surrealism, Collin works to make art that will make people feel seen, laugh, reflect, and sometimes cringe in its honesty.

Originally from Boise, Idaho, Collin has spent the past 15 years in Tacoma, graduating from the University of Puget Sound (BA in Classics) in 2012. Collin currently works as an artist and educator, focused on LGBTQ+ youth advocacy and interpersonal violence prevention education. 

Collz explores themes like identity, consent, affirmation, mental health, and the weird, twisty rabbit holes memory can create in our minds, making poster art and decoupaged paintings with paper scraps from important moments and people in their life. Influenced by the DIY, anarchist and creative communities they continue to build their own version of adulthood in, Collin’s art is scrappy, emotionally messy, earnest, and above all, hopeful in people’s ability to be good to each other when nothing else is. 

Collin was a 2017 recipient of the City of Tacoma’s Tacoma Artist Initiative Program, and recently completed their first studio artist residency in Fall 2022 with Surel’s Place in Garden City, ID. From 2016-2021, Collin founded and ran the Peer Education Empowerment League (PEEL) – an intergenerational community project with queer and allied youth on interpersonal violence prevention.

Collin provides regular consultations and trainings 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).