Connect What is your favorite type of art to create?

I’m a writer, painter, illustrator, drag artist, and tattooist but of these tattooing is my favorite. While I just started tattooing, I studied different styles over the last decade which lead to me developing my own style, so seeing my past work and experience culminate into a design specific to each client is very rewarding. More than anything though it’s the human connection; I love hearing people’s life path and with tattooing I get to do that and create art that’s mutually meaningful.

Where do you find inspiration?

I’m inspired by my spirituality and other artists. Being Pagan has given my art life in the sense that my designs and coloring are nature inspired by a mix of cosmic and earthly sources—everything from nebulas to mushrooms drives my art style. Other artists, past and present, also fuel parts of my visions as I learn from their techniques and seeing how they interpret the world. Even those are my main two pools of inspiration, I also pull from all memories of both dreams and lived experience.

What would you do with $25,000?

I’d use it to get a space for my start up which is a queer sober venue that duels as a development center for performers with an emphasis on minority performers. I’ve been developing a community the past couple years and we’re finally ready for a space but money’s an issue with so many of us being low income. The $25k would go to getting on a lease, the build out, and hiring other local artists to do the wall art. We’re a community of misfit artists who just needs a stage to unabashedly perform.