Got a new floppy sketchbook for ideas, trying to be honest with myself, but it's one of those days where I can't quite get to the front if my face, trying to paint my way out of a corner.

Hey ya’ll! So, I’m trying to take my girlfriend to NYC to see The Great Comet before it closes for her big gay birthday, as well as pay my rent and medical bills, so I’m running this big sale! It’s going to run until August 30th, so if you’ve ever wanted to get art from me, this is a good time ❤

Message me here, or email me at melpaisleyart@gmail.com if you want something! My website is melpaisleyart.com. Thanks!

❤ ORDERS ARE OPEN ❤

The Stonewall Liberators shirts are now available, with proceeds from each shirt going to benefit The Sylvia Rivera Law Center and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy’s TGI Justice Project.

These shirts exist to pay forward the legacies of these four activists who came up out of the Stonewall Riots and dedicated their lives to promoting the health and safety of the most marginalized members of the queer community. Each shirt comes with an information postcard about these trailblazers’ lives and work, so that you can be prepared to share their stories through the oral tradition.

These are conversation starters, ethically sourced new duds for your closet, and a way to support trans people (and specifically trans women of color) when we as a community need it the most. 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/LegacyLines

Painted Okieriete Onaodowan as Pierre Bezukhov in The Great Comet last night, because he’s a national treasure and I wanted to break in this new gold paint. Click for better resolution ♡

some vent art from the other night, the muddle mouthed worthless frustration of trying to make art through brutish clumsy hands when your mind feels like silly putty and spoiled milk glass. i am terrified of my voice as an artist being gagged by my mental fog and dissociation, it's one of the only places I can communicate freely, so I always try to carve myself out of that artist block place, and making intuitive pieces like this just for myself are super helpful with getting back on track. today is an excellent day though, and I'm thrilled to be, present, clear of cobwebs and making shit again ♡

Inking Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy for an infographic tshirt about thier lives and work, benefitting regional qpoc liberation organization Southerners On New Ground (SONG). This is part of a larger series I'm working on, of launching a line of tshirts dedicated to showcasing the lives of marginalized activists and trailblazers, and then laying forward the profits to organizations whose work is in line with that of thier legacies. More updates and the shop launch coming soon, so be sure to follow if you're interested c: You can read more about it if you like at melpaisleyart.com!

i usually end up goreing my self portraits, but i’m trying to be kinder. i’m trying to keep in mind that is okay that some boys can come with additional assembly required.  

i made this out of prison letters from my father and my mother’s old makeup from the 80′s, all cut paper and angry ink, trying to be softer with myself. i feel more like me in these layers and these parts than in a simple picture of a face i wear that does not yet feel like mine.

love ya’ll, be good to eachother, be good to yourself. we all have our own pace.

Little 15 min doodle of my grump nugget mean muggin' the camera from earlier today ♡ might paint it later idk. hope yall have a rad rest of the week! go make things go be your magical selves go play

a little a. ham for an upcoming thing! first time drawing him, so wanted to do a quick trial before moving on to the real piece c:

Made little poems and collage graphics for my mum and gram for mother’s day ♡ my gram’s has some references to an Andrea Gibson poem, but mum’s is all mine.

Constantly reconciling how we love eachother around our edges. Maybe one day they’ll both stop using my deadname. Things are complicated. I know they both care about me, my grandmother is just very conservative, a Republican first gen Japanese woman, very pro-Trump, but lately Ive heard her arguing with my grandfather about trans people, saying "maybe its more complicated than boy or girl. I dont experience it so I cant say, but...it must be hard, feeling that way." So, maybe next mother's day, I can be her grandson. Maybe. We'll see. I know holidays can be hard, especially family ones. Take care of yourselves, okay? ♡