iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Melissa Gay (she/her)

Changeling Artist Collective @changelingart.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The Changelings’ SEP Auction “High Fantasy” is OPEN! Here be dragons, fairies, & more to delight.🐉 Check the auction album on our FB page for instructions on how to bid. Auction ends this FRI, 9/18! Help our Collective out by commenting, Liking, & resharing this post. Support human artists!

An owl donned in knight's armor swoops down from the sky. Art by Elisabeth Alba.

A redheaded girl kneels next to a small golden dragon. Art by Melissa Gay.

A dragon hatchling clutches a penny. Art by Heather Hudson.

A surreal grayscale image of an ancient king enthroned within a city. Art by Jayde Hilliard.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Dragon Con was so much fun!!! Thanks to everyone who made it by my booth, I appreciate you all! Big hugs to all my fellow artists, too, and of course the amazing Art Show staff and volunteers! All of you together made this my best Dragon Con ever!!!

Me in my booth, surrounded by print displays, framed prints, and original paintings both large and small.

30 small original paintings in a tight display! Both sci-fi and fantasy paintings are on display, along with a small artist statement about my space art.

Original character paintings hung in the Art Show section, all from the Surviving Strangehollow TTRPG from Accidental Cyclops Games, based on the amazing watercolor world created by Emily Hare.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

YAY, the Bugs and Beasties event is here!!! This is one of my favorite sets our collective has fielded in 2026! I somehow mentally blanked on the Beasties part of the theme and painted a Bug freshly this weekend! :D Mine is "Dragonfly Ascending," acrylic, watercolor, and Micron pens. 4x6"

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

So happy to be back on Bluesky!!! Here I am at ConCarolinas this past weekend, also glad to be back there! I can now officially announce that I will be the Artist Guest of Honor at ConCarolinas 2027!

A very happy Melissa Gay stands in her art booth surrounded by art prints!

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Proud to be the 4th backer 😎 on @BackerKit Crowdfunding for Forest Floor Wooden Nature Pins! Amanda is awesome!!! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/m...

backerkit.com

Get Ready for Forest Floor Wooden Nature Pins

From makepeaceart - Get Ready for Forest Floor Wooden Nature Pins

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Reposted by Melissa Gay (she/her)

Changeling Artist Collective @changelingart.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Quick link to our auction album here, where you will also find instructions on how to bid on these unique works by our artists in the album description: www.facebook.com/media/set/?v...

A wanderer ventures towards ancient ruins. Art by Jennifer Bruce.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Our Wanderlust event is LIVE! You can bid on these artworks until noon on Friday EST! Everyone's art is so evocative it's making me want to travel!

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Reposted by Melissa Gay (she/her)

Brian_Cooksey.gif @vaklam.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

If you find yourself in Memphis this weekend, stop by @melissagayyy.bsky.social's booth in the dealer room at #midsouthcon.

A table at a convention dealer room covered in art prints. There is a banner behind it that says MELISSA GAY.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Looking forward to another awesome @conpossible.bsky.social !!! Not long now...!

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Reposted by Melissa Gay (she/her)

Elisabeth Alba @elisabethalba.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

So my friend's gofundme has just snuck past 7k which is amazing! If she can raise this much twice more she'd be there!!!

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

This right here. Humans react how they train to react, so train yourself on this phrase. NO KINGS

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

My Two of Swords painting in the show!!!

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

WOW!!! Due to insomnia, I lucked into an astronomical event! Venus bigger than I've EVER seen it in the East, about 6 degrees above the horizon, while the thinnest sliver of a crescent moon rises to the left! BREATHTAKING! <3 <3 <3

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

New painting! Two of Swords for "ARCANUM: Painting the Fates" at Valkarie Gallery (@valkariegallery on social media) in Colorado. What do you do when you find yourself between the devil and the deep blue sea? I think none of us know for sure until we're there ourselves. Alt text for the full story.

A dark-haired woman stands blindfolded, in front of the sea, holding two crossed swords under a crescent moon. This is a painting for all the people displaced or endangered by the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, reproductive rights and health, Trans personhood, Indigenous peoples, and all the families affected. My Two of Swords card is a symbol for all who have been forced to make difficult choices within a landscape of ever-shifting policies, and having to make judgement calls while blinded by a lack of information. What do you do when you find yourself between the devil and the deep blue sea? I think none of us know for sure until we're there ourselves. The figure in the painting wears a friendship bracelet crafted by Cherokee Copper artist Greg Stice, which I gave to my best friend in celebration of her achieving her level 3 Cherokee language certificate. Although Native, she is in danger of being swept up in an ICE raid and deported because she cannot pass for white. It was her decision to leave her home and relocate to a safer state that inspired me to paint this.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

My latest piece, "Rising Storm", 18" x 24", acrylic on paper mounted to hardboard. It is about transformation and rage, rage against that which wants to suppress who and what we are.

A witchy-looking woman, her face half-shrouded in shadow, floats in the air in the eye of a storm. Her dress is the whirlwind, her scarf makes lightning. Around her, clouds transform into ravens.

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Reposted by Melissa Gay (she/her)

Sapling 🌱 @sacredsapling.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

The art industry is extra hard for traditional artists so: 🎉 Let’s do a traditional art #PortfolioDay share! 🎉 Link to your portfolio day post below and I’ll share a bunch today! Any traditional media is welcome (2D or 3D). 👉 Not a traditional artist? Please boost and help us out ✨

A photo of a WIP watercolor sketchbook page showing a cute Black man with long dreadlocks smiling in a colorful high fashion shirt. A color palette sheet is next to the sketchbook. It reads ‘Traditional Artist Portfolio Day Share’ over top of the photo.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

My painting "Dryad Wakes From a Dream" got selected to be in the vol. 13 IBA annual!!! I am thrilled, because I love her, obviously, but also I literally never know which of my pieces is going to resonate with an art jury, LOL. Acrylic on Strathmore 500, 12x18".

A luminous face, painted in yellows, turquoises, and touches of red, emerges from beneath the mossy blanket of a forest floor. She is crowned in branches or upturned tree roots, and gazing dreamily up at the world. A leaf dangles from a cobweb near where her ear would be, as if an ornament or jewelry. Ferns curl next to her face, and mushrooms sprout near her shoulder.

The forest behind her is orange-hued, to suggest she could be waking either to a sunlit world, or to the foreshadowing of a world on fire.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

I was at CONpossible in Duluth, GA, this past weekend, and it was SO FUN!! Mad props to the organizers. They had a ton of programming, a tea room, lots of vendors and authors, and WONDERFUL fans! An absolute treat to be around! The weekend just flew by, and I hope I get to go again next year! ❤️

Me, Melissa Gay, in front of some of my art

My vendor booth display for CONpossible! Paintings to the back, prints to the sides, and merch to the front, with my Trans Ally flag on proud display.

Another view of my vendor space, this time showing the flip bin bearing the 13x19" prints, all the way to the right. My table runner has honey bees on it, because that's what my name means. :)

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Here are a bunch of tiny space paintings! :) Well, kinda small anyway. Acrylic on canvas is my jam! <3 It unblocks my stream of consciousness and lets my creativity flow.

Left: "River of Stars", 8 x 10 inches. Right Top: "Green Nebula", 4 x 4 inches. Right Bottom: "Upper Atmospheric Storm", 4 x 4 inches, won Third Prize Professional Sci-Fi at the Chattacon Art Show! :) All are acrylic on canvas, painted by me, Melissa Gay.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 18/01/2025

Finishing setup at the Chattacon 50 Art Show! Chattacon was my first-ever con back in the day and is very special to me. Yay for 50 years!!!

My decorated booth at the Chattacon Art Show, plus some stray materials for my Fairytale panel at 6pm Friday and 1pm Sunday!

Closer view of my banner and booth display, original paintings, canvas prints, paper prints, and art books.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Thanks for the artshare, @artbyemilyhare.bsky.social ! 💚 I'd like to share this piece today, "Ritual Space", acrylic over watercolor on Strathmore 500 illustration board, 12" x 18". @amandamakepeace.bsky.social is my awesome model!

A woman with long black hair dressed in earth tones sits before a moss-covered rock with a black feather on it, like an offering left on an altar. Behind her are the gnarled roots of a long-ago upturned tree stump. In her right hand she holds a sapling staff. Her left wrist and hand is wrapped in a leather cord, and she holds a crow or raven skull. There is a stark contrast between the warmth of her skin and the coolness of the hazy blue-green environment. the altarstone sits in a pool of water swirling with autumn leaves.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

I made the most perfect cranberry jam last night in about 20 minutes (minus the time spent dicing the cranberries). The answer to all my jam-making woes was apparently this all along, "Use an easier recipe." 🤣

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

I'm Melissa Gay, and clearly I LOVE to paint cosmic birds and women holding sticks! 🤣

A photo of me, Melissa Gay, surrounded by my paintings, with my signature and calligraphy chop at the top. I only realized while putting this promo image together how MANY of my artworks feature a brunette woman holding a stick. It's like a prophecy has embedded itself into my subconscious mind, "Look ye for the woman holding a stick!" I'm joking, of course. Kinda. Also I love to paint cosmic birds.

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Just FYI, I am blocking anyone who has AI art on their profile.

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Reposted by Melissa Gay (she/her)

78 Tarot @78tarot.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Our fantastic Nautical: the New Wave and Oracle of the Healing Waters artists 😍 go.bsky.app/V9FCEc

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

LOL I could at least repost your post of my Hero Forge character! :D THOSE ROSES ARE CABBAGES!!!!

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 24/10/2024

Officially off Twitter as of this minute! Yay!

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 16/08/2024

Me, preparing for every convention ever!

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 09/12/2023

It always takes me a long time to process my emotions after certain art shows, and the comments I get. This year I have decided to stop apologizing for what I love, forever!!!!

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Melissa Gay (she/her) @melissagayyy.bsky.social · 28/11/2023

In 1851, Melville describes perfectly the emotional aftermath of every convention I've ever gone to!

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Reposted by Melissa Gay (she/her)

Changeling Artist Collective @changelingart.bsky.social · 27/11/2023

Our Deck the Halls auction is now open in the Faery Ring Group! ✨ Support artists this holiday season. #art #supportartists #artshop www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...

Painting of a badger, fox and an otter carrying a holiday tree. Art by Elisabeth Alba.

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