05/11/2022 23:21:32 ¶ ●

an illustration of a fat, feathered, bird-clawed & horned, queer & trans Jewish demon, seated above Yiddish text reading "feygele." the figure is chained by the wrists but appears arrogant & inviting.

a poem with an illustration of bird with a person's head & crown of stars. the title (in Hebrew) is "sheyd

FEYGELE, 2020.

a sheyd (Jewish demon) inspired by two major stylistic influences, Leonard Baskin & Aubrey Beardsley, and also by the #AugustAdiPOSE & #FatArt hashtags on Twitter. the title/text “feygele” is a Yiddish word meaning “little bird” often used as pejorative slang for a queer person – here also playing off the figure’s size & the bird-like attributes of sheydim in folklore. a queer/trans fat Jewish aspiration!

paired with the poem “sheyd” from my chapbook:

commanded, as you are, to love the stranger,

must you not also be a refuge

to the strangest who reside among you?

call us in from the corners, we little birds

who sing in unfamiliar tongues: our cries

also reach heaven.

though our prayers take different forms

we too are people of the book;

we too keep our covenants, in the

twilight places where we make our homes.

even as you safeguard yourselves fully against us,

so do you imprison a portion of the soul we share—

let there be spaces in your dwellings and your teachings

for us to come and go in peace.

we bring with us both the fear and the joy you have forgotten:

in the dust, in the ashes of your empires

shall you see our footprints.

09/11/2022 7:12:35 ¶ ●

Candlelight & Token, published by Glowing Roots Press, 2020-2021.

covers & interior illustrations (left, Forest Angel for Candlelight; right, Nest for Token)

some of my favorite illustration work from the past few years has been for TTRPGs with Gabriel Robinson - Candlelight in 2020 was really my first foray back into ink painting after a long time, & now i can’t get enough of it. very excited for an upcoming project with Gabriel that we can’t quite talk about yet, but i can promise more of this mood.

10/11/2022 6:33:04 ¶ ●

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Summoning & Wraith Tree illustrations for The Academy Chrysalis by Pluripotent Press

more moody ink paintings for a game with a great “dark academia” setting. you can hire me to paint floating dismembered bovines anytime!

13/11/2022 2:44:00 ¶ ●

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Minerva Metalhead, 2019 (for Black Metal Rainbows, available for pre-order)

i keep meaning to do more in this vein of collage-with-pen! i was invited to contribute to this anthology & remembered that i had saved the head & arms of a vintage doll ad (“Minerva” was the company, the new metal head was the selling point). it turned into a piece about feminist & specifically anti-fascist black metal, playing on Minerva as the goddess of wisdom, the arts & war. the book the owls are holding is open to images from the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra, attributed to a foundational woman alchemist from 3rd or 4th century Greece.

also, sometimes you’re out doing errands & you run into a neo-Nazi with an SS bolt facial tattoo, so you come home & draw that on a head on a pike.

18/11/2022 1:29:08 ¶ ● ⬈

sassylich:

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> i just got my copy of token by gabriel robinson (trollhands on twitter) and it’s STUNNING!! everyone go get yourself a copy from glowing roots press! (gorgeous cover art by @sheydgarden)

thank you so much! it’s such a thrill to see these out in the world (and what a beautiful photo to show it off!)

18/11/2022 1:38:24 ¶ ●

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Glasgolem, 2022

earlier this year i was honored to be asked to do the cover for issue #1 of Golem Zine, a series showcasing voices from lesser-known Jewish communities around the world. this first issue celebrated Jewish life & culture in Glasgow, and creating this cover involved a deep dive into the history of Glaswegian Jewish art & architecture.

18/11/2022 19:24:33 ¶ ●

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title pages & interior illustrations for Dream Askew (in green) & Dream Apart (in sepia), 2018, Buried Without Ceremony

DA/DA was my first real TTRPG job & remains one of my favorite projects ever - two beautiful games about survival (queer communities in the near-future apocalypse, Jewish communities in a historic/fantastical shtetl) that truly live inside you once you’ve played them. this was the beginning of the Belonging Outside Belonging system/style (built on the frameworks of Powered by the Apocalypse), which has gone on to inspire many other incredible games!