BIO

Welcome to this virtual nest, this portal, just one of my many homes sweet homes. Thank you for coming by. My name is Ember, I am an artist, a queer, a witch, a student, a community arts organizer, a drag king, and an expressive arts practitioner in training from Minneapolis, Minnesota, the land of the Anishinaabe and Ojibwe peoples. Creating art has always been my purpose and I have learned from many wise inspiring teachers in all different shapes and sizes along the way who have lead me to where I am today, studying Expressive Arts Coaching and Community Building at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

The cosmos, alchemy, mythology, queer countercultures, and the flora and fauna of the natural world inspire me to make my pen-and-ink drawings. These illustrations are the bones of everything I do. Using intricate line work, elaborate detail, and high contrast imagery, I create visual artwork that explores how images can become altars, spells, or talismans. Drawing deeply from the realm of the underworld, the depths of the subconscious, and the world of dreams, I use symbolism to craft portals and offer protection charms for witches, healers, soothsayers, activists, misfits, outcasts, travelers, or anyone with a true desire to engage with their own unique magik. Through visual storytelling, I want to conjure tools and opportunities for exploration and healing to occur.

A love of structure, ritual, and multiplicity drives me to rely heavily on printmaking techniques. The richly intertwined history of printmaking and socially engaged practice inspires me to honor these ancient methods and find new and exciting ways to bring prints into the world. Because I believe art is most powerful when it is inexpensive, authentic, abundant, and accessible, I celebrate a trash-to-treasure ethos. I make zines to bring d.i.y. media into community, hoping to create genuine connections through the sharing of information. I often present my art as my own creative, non-monetary medium of exchange, so in this way, my work encapsulates an anti-capitalist dream of a gift economy.

My process is one of gathering raw and wild moments and alchemizing those memories into an archive of inspiration and wonder. In my drawings, I honor the beloved places, people, guides, and stories that have enchanted me throughout my life -- they have become the sparks that light the fire of my art practice. With this in mind, even though I draw in solitude, I experience my art practice as inherently collaborative. I now know the limitations of trying to do it alone, and the limitlessness of what we can do together. I aspire to collect and reflect beauty and pay it forward, towards the ever evolving world we co-create. Creative transformation is my way to learn and unlearn, challenge myself, challenge the world around me, and imagine and reimagine infinite liberatory possibilities.

In love and solidarity,
Ember