Three Figure Drawings, Circa 2009 Before I Dashed My Parents Hopes By Saying "I Wanna Quit Art School,

hot damn!

These are my breasts and nipples, complete with acne, moles, and hair. Will this image violate tumblr’s new content rules?

Examples of exceptions that are still permitted are exposed female-presenting nipples in connection with breastfeeding, birth or after-birth moments, and health-related situations, such as post-mastectomy or gender confirmation surgery.

I am a transgender man. I have not had the opportunity or the money to have top surgery. I am excruciatingly aware that the “gender presentation” of my nipples is in the eye of the beholder. Disconnected from the context of the rest of my body and gendered presentation, they look like “female-presenting” nipples. Hell, there are plenty of cisgender women with more chest hair than me.

Are we going to determine the “gender presentation” of my nipples based on my legal gender? That’s debatable too. My most recent legal IDs list my gender as “male,” but my birth certificate lists my gender as “female.” I cannot change the gender on my birth certificate without going back to the state where I was born and getting an order from a judge, and paying a fee. Until I have the time to and money to do that, there will always be at least one legal document where I am still considered female.  

Written content such as erotica, nudity related to political or newsworthy speech, and nudity found in art, such as sculptures and illustrations, are also stuff that can be freely posted on Tumblr.

I would say this painting has artistic merit, at the very least from a technical standpoint. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would see no artistic merit in this painting, regardless of technical skill. The line between “nudity found in art” and “adult content” is as indistinct as the line between “naked” and “nude.” Tumblr and Facebook’s new policies stem from SESTA/FOSTA [LINK] and corporate monopolies [LINK].

Policies meant to curtail sex work always hurt more than they help, whether the sex work is voluntary, coerced, or forced. Example: NYC, LA, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. have all had/have laws that allow possession of multiple condoms to be considered evidence of prostitution, resulting in arrest or the confiscation of the condoms. So, no safe sex if you’re doing sex work, I guess?

Policies like these disproportionately effect people and communities who are viewed as being “inherently sexual” or “overly sexual.” Facebook’s overzealous new policy prohibits reference to “sexual preferences.” I will bet money that policy won’t be enforced when a cis het man makes a status update about “I like girls with [insert physical attribute here],” but it will be enforced when a queer person refers to a top, a bottom, a switch, a Daddy, a [insert relational attribute here].

As to what constitutes art and how that concept gets weaponized against LGBTQ people (and other oppressed groups, I’d argue), just read about the history of conservative loathing for the National Endowment for the Arts [LINK].

I don’t think my little protest painting will make tumblr and their corporate overlords change their minds. But I couldn’t not express my opinion on this.

I don’t know if this blog will get flagged or deleted or whatever. I’ll keep using tumblr until I no longer have a reason to. But, just in case, I’ll be setting up a pillowfort, and maybe a poizen. In the meantime, you can keep up with my shitpost tweets HERE.

"Sharpen and Blur"

acrylic on canvas board, 16 x 11

This is one of those pieces that... doesn't really have a deeper meaning behind it. The body is my favorite subject for art, so the way that scar tissue can alter it fascinates me. I realized I'd never done a painting of someone with a facial scar and decided to do one. As the painting progressed, I started thinking of how my great-grandmother described the experience of having cataracts -- she said it was like seeing through layers of veils. So I smeared the hell out of the background and added layers of matte medium over the sections of the image that I wanted to push backwards.

And so that's how this came about.

My Etsy: LINK / My Ko-Fi: LINK

I’m considering this done. Just needs a coat of varnish.

Another painting in progress

Sooo... I was gonna do some Valentine’s art to sell, but of course I didn’t get it done in time for anyone to actually order it in time for Valentine’s day.

My Etsy: LINK / My Ko-Fi: LINK

Aizawa and cats.

My Etsy: LINK / My Ko-Fi: LINK

Dreamed that a soldier killed Caesar in a desert, with a single blow of a sword to the neck. Even though they were Romans, they were both dressed in medieval armor that was completely golden. The soldier went back to Rome, came out as a transgender woman and then proceeded to rule Rome better than Caesar ever had.

Emet is now available for $5 as a PDF download!

LINK

Debuted this @shortrunseattle and now it’s up for sale in my etsy

“Emet” is a short story about a woman and a Golem – $10,  plus shipping 5.5 x 8.5, 12 pages, full color choose media shipping and save money!        

I hope to post something about the awesome time I had at Short Run, but it might be a little while because I have about three grad school assignments I’m working on. Also there’s an election tomorrow and I will either be drowning my sorrows or celebrating having dodged the Apocalypse.

My Etsy: LINK / My Society6: LINK / My Ko-Fi: LINK

I may or may not be working on a Naruto comic.

Some sketches of Boruto-era Sasuke, including my reasoning for the change in hairstyle.

Find me around the web on my Carrd: LINK / Drop a tip in my Ko-fi: LINK

So I’ve scanned the pages of my risographed fashion study zine (you can buy that here) and have got them for sale on Society6!

My Etsy: LINK / My Society6: LINK / My Ko-Fi: LINK

If you are 18+ and make, purchase, or enjoy artwork with nudity (especially depictions of "non-normative" bodies) or sexual activity, I encourage you to join this list.

SESTA/FOSTA and the restrictions of payment processors are the primary reasons that places like Tumblr, Instagram, Patreon, Squarespace, Gumroad and Etsy (with varying ways to get around the rules) will not sell products or even host images of nudity or sexual acts.

Since I started selling my own artwork online, almost 20 years ago, the number of sites where artists can post and sell anything that merely has a NIPPLE visible has been drastically reduced. If you're aware of the disparity in censorship on sites/apps like tumblr, insta, and tiktok -- all of which have documented trends of censoring images of visibly queer, fat, and/or disabled bodies, regardless of sexual content -- then you can understand how these additional limitations further restrict the arena for creative works by marginalized communities. And the ways you can directly, ethically support adult content creators/porn stars/sex workers.

Patreon, Squarespace, Gumroad. What do all these online spaces have in common? A monopolizing payment processor. My hand slipped and I contacted the ACLU, the FSC, and the MA Bar Association for legal assistance. If you’ve been fucked over by draconian nsfw bans please join my Mastercard Injury Mailing List.

Google Docs

Mastercard Injury Mailing List

Have you been negatively impacted by Gumroad’s recent ban on nsfw content? Or another website’s draconian policies which threaten your livel