mp_illo 🏳️‍🌈🇵🇷

Donate to Help Bring Joy to Kids Sheltering in the Twin Cities, organized by Sara Fowler I am a Minneapolis-based illustrator/book designer raising funds to p… Sara Fowler needs your support for Help Bring Joy to Kids Sheltering in the Twin Cities

The organizer still needs to raise about $1k to cover the printing cost for this run. Here is the donation link if you are able to help!
gofund.me/72e14a9f8

image of lots of coloring pages with the text "Spread joy to sheltering kids!"

Line drawing of a shrew giving flowers to a gopher. They are both wearing warm clothes and there are larger flowers behind them.

@mp-illo.bsky.social recently invited me to take part in this project for kids in the twin cities that are currently sheltering in place during the 🧊 occupation. These coloring books full of donated art will be distributed to social workers and schools to go to families in need.

Donate to Help Save Mercado Central from Closure, organized by Cooperativa Mercado Central Mercado Central, a cooperative founded by latino entrepeneurs with… Cooperativa Mercado Central needs your support for Help Save Mercado Central from Closure

Mercado Central says the cooperative is in danger of losing the building ☹️ gofund.me/cf76f8dcb

here's a rent fun in mpls you can donate to right now, from organizers i know and can personally vouch for!

emergency rent support for North MPLS: venmo.com/u/NorthMplsMA

I call them Lou, the loon ✨

#illustration #mpILLO

Do your inner thoughts have a voice you can hear? • It's okay if they do • It's okay if they don't

An image of a back alley at night with the accompanying text: A possum strolled through these bushes once. Didn't notice me. Or didn't care. Who's to say. * * * It was a thrill to watch you pass by in the night.

A digital illustration by visual artist Michael Perez. Three ducks in various colorations swim in a stylized body of water.

Some of my favorite moments from the first EELS volume, RELEASE. The last picture is from a comic by the talented @mp-illo.bsky.social

Title card for EELS: VOLUME II CURRENTS

Would you like to become an EEL? EELS: VOLUME 2 • Currents • seeks visual art, writing, and concepts inspired by the movement of currents, patterns in ripples, and reflections in water. The multifaceted element of water speaks volumes. What does it say to you? Where do you let the currents take you? What do you notice when you step back and observe the ripples of your actions? APPLICATION DEADLINE: 1/31/26 Artists will notified by 2/20/26 with submission decisions. For submission details, visit www.paulfosaaen.com/blog

Hey everyone, I have a call for art for my curated blog series EELS on my website! For more details, check out my website www.paulfosaaen.com/blog

#callforart

Illustration of a white wolf breathing smoke from out of it’s mouth as a meteor shower rains from the sky. The wolf’s body is covered in red cracks and creases.

The heat

Working on a piece I hope to complete this week 🤞🏼
#painting #illustration #mpILLO

This photo I took of Blake!
I loved seeing the joy they all had playing together. ☺️

May he offer a beet in these trying times.
🫜

Skinned beet held in someone’s hand. Deep reddish purple in color, the juices of the beet stain the person’s fingers.

Husband made borscht the other day and felt like being a lil food photographer
📸

With SNAP/EBT cuts looming I highly recommend downloading this app! Basically restaurants and other food businesses will have available bags of random food they don’t wanna waste for ppl to buy for hella cheap! This has saved me sooooo many times when I only have $5 and need some food.

Thank you! (also, turns out I’ll actually be finishing this idea train up next month 😌 - three cheers for external encouragement.)

A friend reminded me of an idea I was working on earlier this year.
Unsure if it might culminate or finalize when I have more time.

(I’m feeling very #wip lately.)

Looking at the traditional works I’ve done lately and I want to challenge myself to /not/ use green or primarily cool colors.

🤭

Another painting in progress. 👀🌳

I finished the piece I was working on earlier this month and I need to take proper documentation of the piece.

I gotta look through my photos and videos and reminisce now too!
So glad I was there with you @magnoliamaw.bsky.social and helping me get to the show ❤️

Another #wip
Been creating more traditional work lately!

☺️☺️☺️ grateful for your friendship!!

a black and white typography edit that reads "i am gay and i must create". around the text are many arts and crafts supplies such as a glue gun, spools of thread, scissors, a linocut carver, tunes of paint, crayons, buttons, pins, a ball of yarn, paint brushes, pens, and pencils, and other things of that nature. the entire image is textured to look photocopied.

repost 🖍️🖌️✂️

Thank you ☺️☺️

Long time no see
Been working on a painting based on a digital piece I did during the summer.
#wip

焦天

I’ve been inspired by the nature in the backyard lately. 🐇🌳

That is so true

I wrote about this a bit in my last book but it really shakes me that a defining feature of this catastrophic era is that we just keep going to work. We work through pandemics, we work through natural disasters, we work through economic calamity, we work through coups, we work, we work, we work.

Other snapshots from a new area code 📸

Three birds standing feet apart cuz they’re not gay. lol

Light coming in from a prismatic window cling filtered through the various holes of a monitor stand. Colors range in reds, oranges, greens and blues.

Snapshots from working from (new) home today

Winter in LA Japanese Breakfast · For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) · Song · 2025

This track has entered heavy rotation for me lately
#JapaneseBreakfast