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i am an illustrator, formline & visual designer, and comic artist; my focuses are animals & nature, anthro & fantasy, and narrative works such as abstract & traditional comics, zines, and poetry. i love creating with harmonious palettes, strong shapes, and textured, discrete shading & colouring techniques.i was raised on Ktunaxa territory in BC, canada, and currently live on Akimel O'odham & Pee Posh lands in arizona, USA.my original work focuses on topics of mental health, survivorship, heritage, spirituality, and social issues i am impacted by; i use animals, surrealism, and fantasy to explore these ideas in empowering & personal ways.

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2024 :

Coming after the new year!

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2023 :

I always liked replicating an analog "feel" in my art, but this year in particular I was inspired to take it much further than I ever had before, incorporating more and more graphic and textural elements. I also refreshed my semi-realistic approach after taking a break to lean into formline during the years previous.

1, 2, 3. Ts'msyenu a ts'm G̱a̱wiłeeyu series, April 2023. — (Buy print 1, print 2, print 3) (Timelapse of 2 on Patreon)
Translates to "Ts'msyen in my Veins". A trio of illustrations I completed as a singular project.In exploring more ways to mix formline with my long-established semi-realist style, I felt the tension of playing to non-Indigenous sensibilities, like unintentionally validating an expectation that formline art isn't interesting enough on its own merits and must be "modernized". At the same time, living in the age we do and following from other contemporary Indigenous artists, I wanted the freedom to combine and experiment with different mediums as long as its in a respectful and accurate way. I'd also been about 3 years into my Sm'algya̱x language learning journey at this point, and many more into my journey to reconnect with my Ts'msyen family and our ways of being. These works, featuring various semi-realistic animals bisected to reveal innards of formline, followed from those thoughts and experiences.

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4. Waking Up From Surgery, June 2023. — (Buy print) (Timelapse on Patreon)
A work depicting my experience of coming to after my top surgery in 2020, drawn for Pride Month. The memory I have of it is so vivid and I’ll never forget it as long as I live - I remember slowly coming into being, huffing in and out rapidly, feeling fire on my chest and crying all at once. It felt literally like I was finally newly born, like my life before was just in gestation.5. Awake, July 2023. — (Buy print)
A piece that I wanted to use to push my understanding of colour, texture, and form even more than usual. I went out of my way to use colours I typically didn't think of (like ultramarine and peach) and using new shapes/directional flows I wasn't accustomed to.6. Supernatural, July 2023. — (Buy print) (Timelapse on Patreon)
A sketchier one that popped into my mind along with the phrase. Combining animal imagery with odd snippets about identity is a tried-and-true tradition of mine.7. Only the Stars Satiate, September 2023. — (Buy print)
Full title is "Only the Stars Satiate When Skeletons Remain". Following from the previous three works, I wanted to try even more to replicate traditional mediums and focus more on linework and form rather than clean rendering.8. Evidence of Life, October 2023. — (Buy print) (Timelapse on Patreon)
At this point, I started really missing making comics and wanted to incorporate some kind of paneling into my compositions. What followed was a more story-telling, sequential piece than I usually do in semi-realism.I was also really into the Elden Ring release craze going on the year prior, and was fascinated with some comments I'd seen from the director, Hidetaka Miyazaki about his design philosophy. Despite Souls games often focusing on the dark and grotesque, he dislikes "gross-out" imagery; he instead prefers to weave beauty (in terms of aesthetic and emotional appeal) and discomfort together, in order to heighten what is beautiful: "To be realistic, I feel something beautiful needs something ugly—something that's depraved or tragic to heighten and embolden that beauty. I think that's a much more realistic depiction of beauty, to have something small and beautiful inside something tragic and decaying" (source). I noticed this philosophy in Elden Ring and it really captured me - this idea of beauty having to be found within or alongside, not to the exclusion of, the things that are scary, repulsive, even dangerous. Things that are "violent" and "negative" - death, decay, rot, destruction - exist alongside, even in relationship with, the "positive" - new life, hope. Not as a contradiction or problem to be solved, but a harmony.9. I Saw Something in the Aurora, November 2023. — (Buy print) (Timelapse on Patreon)
I liked drawing closer busts of animals as in the G̱a̱'wiłeeyu series, so I revisited that general concept here with a greater focus on analog textures and pushing the paneling concept further. I also brought back more celestial themes here (the auroras and stars), something that I've continually revisited over the course of my artistic life, with the aim of figuring out a nice way to stylize them. A coyote spots something in the sky, and is awestruck, carried away.

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10, 11, 12, 13. Various Patreon sticker club designs, 2023. — (Buy print 10, print 11)
The best of my 2023 sticker club, in my opinion. I'm particularly proud of Barely Contained Energy, a fun colour push, and Star-crossed, another meditation on cycles of life, predator and prey relationships, and fate - this time featuring an eagle and a salmon.

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2022 & 2021 :

2022 and 2021 were years of great artistic growth, for me. I came with a renewed focus after becoming involved in Sm'algya̱x language revitalization and making an effort to expand my artistic tastes, especially with a long overdue upgrade to my art workflow.

1. Raven Steals The Sun, November 2022. — (Buy print)
Yet another of my many arts depicting Txaamsm stealing the sun, itself a remake of an older work that I made for Nativember on Twitter. I really enjoy mixing semi-realism and formline like this, when it makes sense to do so!2. Monstrous Existence, November 2022. — (Buy print)
A fanart of Mae Borowski from Night in the Woods. I played this game very late, but I was extremely enchanted by its humour and heart. Mae's monologue about "shapes" was something I managed to stay completely unspoiled for and it hit me like a freight train.3. Meet Your Destined Death, 2022. — (Buy print)
Another fanart, this time of Maliketh from Elden Ring. Although he wasn't my favourite to play against in terms of how the fight was designed, the atmosphere in this arena was crazy and I wanted to capture it.4. Stray Little Eyes, 2022. — (Buy print)
Third time's the charm with the little cat from Stray! This was inspired by a quote from the robot with all the CRT TVs behind him who remarks "our world must seem gigantic from your little eyes". As much as I want to criticize aspects of the game's narrative delivery, the environments were just enchanting, and I thought this line was profound.

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5. Shanah Tovah, Jupiter, September 2022 / Tishri 5783. — (Buy print)
Exactly during Rosh Hashanah 5783, Jupiter orbited the closest to Earth that it had in 59 years. I thought this coincidence was really wonderful and wanted to commemorate it with an artwork. The work features a ram's head imposed over Jupiter; honey flows from its horn (the shofar), cutting across the silhouette and filling in its eye. The eye is synonymous with Jupiter's Great Red Spot.6. Raven's Lesson, 2021. — (Buy print)
A piece about being two-spirit and transgender. I designed this to resemble a chest that is post-mastectomy top surgery, just like mine. Raven’s wings and torso represent pectoral muscles, and his legs and talons are double incision scars.In Ts'msyen Adaawx (true-tellings, not folklore or myth) as well as some neighbouring nations, it’s said that Raven used to be white long ago. As is often the case for trans people, I made drastic changes to my presentation and body from what I was born, grew up with, and pressured into; I found meaning that Raven once looked very different too. It also symbolizes adaptation: the white half of raven represents the old ways, and the black, modern times - Indigenous people broadly have had to adapt our ways as colonization continues, and I think two-spirit people have a unique relationship with this. We try to find ourselves in our histories that are sometimes nearly totally erased. We move in and out of colonial genders and LGBT identities as it suits us.Raven is also very resourceful and transforms into other beings; likewise, we adapt and transform. He's also self-motivated - not even stealing the sun is off limits! We are by necessity self-propelled, tenaciously chasing down treatment or making other transformations. Even when we have to sneak under the noses of authority figures in our lives to do it.This split between two also gets at my own experience - in English terms, I am approximately nonbinary. While I needed medical transition, my transition was not to a man but to being a different “woman”. Under colonial gender, I am flattened. I’m more comfortable than ever as this new kind of woman, but I had to accept that many will initially perceive me as a man. It’s like I’m inbetween two worlds.Some other details: the two faces on Raven’s hips with hands up symbolize support from within and out, and how we are in dialogue with ourselves, our communities, and the universe. The gold ovoid is the sun, which shines on us all no matter who we are. He’s also holding more light in his talons - medicine, which is transition, transformation, and community.7. Txaamsm and the Snake, 2021.
A design about climate grief. The black snake (representing colonial pipelines, following from Indigenous ecological activist discourse) spouts contamination and brings uncontrollable fire to the forest. Though Raven is mourning, he turns his grief into action: with his tears and blood he douses the fire, quelling the snake.8. Weight of the World, 2021.
A redraw of an older piece. A great wolf holds the Earth in its jaws, mourning for it, its tears turning into black feathers. A raven, perched upside-down on its lower jaw, mourns for it too; its own tears return to the Earth.

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SEEING THE SKY THROUGH THE STORMS

an illustrated poetry zine spanning 29 pages of poems. all were written in the span from 2016-2018, in the midst of a period of chaotic change and trauma epiphanies in my life. it briefly chronicles my journey from feeling trapped in a small town with misunderstanding family, to eloping in a different country in search of a better life. updated 11/2021 with new art and additional poems i had originally left out.

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CATLAMP is my webcomic about a cat who wakes up in a world of complete darkness, other than a solitary talking lamp who they discover nearby. they set out on a journey together in hopes of finding the sun.CATLAMP is lighthearted but meaningful, narratively and visually surreal, inspired by my experiences with psychosis. it's a unique setting and a heartfelt story that features the growth of a friendship in unlikely circumstances, in a cold, confusing world. it is 192 pages divided into 13 chapters, and ran from november 21st, 2018 to january 1st, 2022.

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