Airen Hall

EVERYBODY CAN MAKE ART IT CAME FREE WITH YOUR HUMAN SPIRIT

Thanks! 😊 I buy the paper itself but then I paint or dye it myself. I use all different kinds of paper.

cut paper collage illustration showing a red and gold hot air balloon soaring over a landscape with trees, fields, and mountains. Includes my contact info, www.withoutaladder.com

Just a tiny bit late for #kidlitartpostcard! I create paper collages by hand. I'd love to work on PBs and covers.

#kidlitpostcardday #kidlit #kidlitart

2026 Trans Girl Scouts To Order Cookies From! This year, consider ordering your Girl Scout cookies from a trans girl scout to make their day!

Hey everyone!

Huge news! Our trans girl scout list has sold a total of 146,000 boxes as of today!

But MANY trans girl scouts only have 20, 30, 40 boxes sold.

I just resorted our list to put those on the top.

Go get your girl scout cookies and make a trans kid's day!

Abolish ICE.

There’s no reforming it.

There’s no compromise.

There’s only one way to rein in ICE’s terror campaign. Abolish it.

Democratic leadership need to be waking up every morning with the singular goal of matching the energy of the heroes on the ground in Minnesota.

Great thread on the scale and hope of the defenders of Minneapolis. I hope all cities and communities can learn these lessons and come together in the face of this fascist threat.

Abolish ICE is the floor.

lol, exactly

If you are looking for a way to send support and love to Minneapolis

Now, more than ever, check out a novel from your public library, get yourself some snacks, and READ for pure joy. You deserve it.

Great idea to help show Becky and other trans kids they are not alone.

I expected 2026 to be a rough year. Still. This has been a hell of a first week.

Congrats!

A 3x3 grid shows nine different images. In the center the image is a photograph of Airen Hall, a middle-aged white woman with dark hair, looking upward. The other pictures are various cut paper collage illustrations: a boy with a snowdrop, a woman with a snake, a girl doing a rain dance, a dwarf by a waterfall, Death personified, a ghostly woman with a lantern, an Earth goddess, and a woman looking out to a sailing ship.

2025 has been such a crazy year! Some really difficult times in my personal life. Some amazing moments with my art life. I created some pieces I am really proud of this year. I am grateful for the time & space I have to make art & for the lovely people who have supported me. #ArtVSArtist2025

A 3x3 grid shows nine different images. In the center the image is a photograph of Airen Hall, a middle-aged white woman with dark hair, looking upward. The other pictures are various cut paper collage illustrations: a boy with a snowdrop, a woman with a snake, a girl doing a rain dance, a dwarf by a waterfall, Death personified, a ghostly woman with a lantern, an Earth goddess, and a woman looking out to a sailing ship.

2025 has been such a crazy year! Some really difficult times in my personal life. Some amazing moments with my art life. I created some pieces I am really proud of this year. I am grateful for the time & space I have to make art & for the lovely people who have supported me. #ArtVSArtist2025

Here's to peace this Christmas.

Phases of the Moon - Winter Song, a unique hand coloured version of my etching which I made into my card this year.

Merry Yuletide to all, may the light beat back the darkness!

Screenshot from The Lord of the Rings Appendices [3018] October 1 Gandalf leaves Bree. 3 He is attacked at night on Weathertop. 6 The camp under Weathertop attacked at night. Frodo wounded. 9 Glorfindel leaves Rivendell. 11 He drives the Riders off the Bridge of Mitheithel. 13 Frodo crosses the Bridge. 18 Glorfindel finds Frodo at dusk. Gandalf reaches Rivendell. 20 Escape across the Ford of Bruinen. 24 Frodo recovers and wakes. Boromir arrives in Rivendell at night. 25 Council of Elrond. December 25 The Company of the Ring leaves Rivendell at dusk.

a very happy The Fellowship Sets Forth from Rivendell Day (December 25) to all who celebrate

A cut paper collage illustration shows a big stack of presents in brightly colored wrapping paper. There are three cats, an orange one sniffing a bow, a black one pawing at some ribbon, and a grey one hiding under the boxes.

Merry Christmas Eve! Whether or not you are celebrating, I wish you a stack of wonderful things.

Not making New Year’s resolutions, but pacts with ancient forest gods, alliances with scheming wizards, bargains with charming archdevils

I want to draw especial attention to the treatment of AI—artificial intelligence—in these narratives. Think of Ex Machina or Blade Runner. I spoke at TED two years in a row, and one year, there were back-to-back talks about whether or not AI was going to evolve out of control and “kill us all.” I realized that that scenario is just something I have never been afraid of. And at the same moment, I noticed that the people who are terrified of machine super-intelligence are almost exclusively white men. I don’t think anxiety about AI is really about AI at all. I think it’s certain white men’s displaced anxiety upon realizing that women and people of color have, and have always had, sentience, and are beginning to act on it on scales that they’re unprepared for. There’s a reason that AI is almost exclusively gendered as female, in fiction and in life. There’s a reason they’re almost exclusively in service positions, in fiction and in life. I’m not worried about how we’re going to treat AI some distant day, I’m worried about how we treat other humans, now, today, all over the world, far worse than anything that’s depicted in AI movies. It matters that still, the vast majority of science fiction narratives that appear in popular culture are imagined by, written by, directed by, and funded by white men who interpret the crumbling of their world as the crumbling of the world.

YES to that last repost from @tressiemcphd.bsky.social. Relatedly, I gave this talk all the way back in 2018.

(Back then, ‘AI movies’ meant movies about AI, not movies made with AI 🥴)

A girl is carrying a Christmas branch with a dog and birds. Joy holiday card.

#Peace be with you in this sad #2025holiday season. #Hope you may find small #joy. This is from my old #Christmascards collection.

#childrensart #picturebookart #childrensillustration #picturebookillustration #childrensbookillustration #childrensbookart #kidslitart #kidlitillustration

Also, congratulations everyone who made something this year. A comic, a song, a film, a novel, a painting, a poem, a short story, a sculpture, crochet, embroidery, whatever it is. In this era of slop and theft, if you *make* something you are a shining jewel and I am so grateful for you.

The handmade, human qualities of your work are more valuable than they've ever been. Don't doubt that for a second.

A collection of the seven folktale week cut paper collage illustrations I made

It was another fantastic #FolktaleWeek. I really loved participating this year and I'm so glad I made the time to do it.
#FolktaleWeek2025

Amen!

A cut paper collage illustration depicting Aurora, Roman goddess of the dawn. She is standing, riding through the sky on a chariot with golden wings. She wear white robes and a golden sun goes before her.

Final day of #FolktaleWeek2025: DAWN. I was happy to see this prompt because I had already been thinking of doing a piece with the Roman goddess Aurora and her winged chariot. Synchronicity!
#folktaleweek #mythology

A close-up view of the cut paper collage illustration shown in the original post, focusing in on the Cailleach (the old woman in the clouds).

And here's a close-up on the Cailleach herself.

A cut paper collage illustration shows an old woman surrounded by big clouds in the dark sky. Snow is coming from her towards a tower on a mountainside.

Can't believe we're already on Day 6 of #FolktaleWeek2025: STORM. I did a depiction of the Cailleach, or Storm Hag. She is a figure from Gaelic/Celtic mythology.
#folktaleweek

A close-up on the cut paper collage illustration of the original post, focusing on the dwarf so his gold ring can be seen better.

Close-up!