CHRISTIAN BAÑEZ
He/Him / Saint Joseph, MO

Christian Bañez is a first-generation Asian American artist. He describes each work as an entry into an open diary. Working primarily with oil paint, he creates work that portrays themes of immigration, racism, and his childhood growing up in rural Missouri.

christianbanezart.com

MIRI DAVILA
She/Her / Milwaukee, WI

Miri Davila is a disabled visual artist and writer who just returned to her beloved Milwaukee after years away in the southwest. Formerly, she ran the webcomic Heart Hex, but has since put it on indefinite hiatus. (It's very good, please read it.) Her stories often use the supernatural as a way to explore grief, identity, and personal growth.
She has a deep love for paper dolls, collecting vintage ones and creating her own. Miri is currently working to combine her stories with the visual medium and tactile experience of paper dolls to return to visual storytelling while accommodating her disability.

MARI GIACOPELLI
They/She / Chicago, IL

Mari Giacopelli is a queer, nonbinary photographer currently working in Chicago, IL. They are currently attending Columbia College Chicago, pursuing a degree in fashion photography. Her photographs incorporate colors, clothing, and posing to create interesting compositions. Playful and quirky, Mari's work goes above and beyond typical fashion photography, often including creative elements such as props and makeup to establish their own style.

RIA GORDON
They/Them / Dayton, OH

I am a draw-er, animator, storyteller, & comic artist. I make work about being a survivor of Stage II Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and any other shenanigans, tragedies, travesties, joys and dramatics that enfold in my being alive. Currently I can be found hunched over at a desk, frantically scribbling in my sketchbook with my dog at my feet.

SEA JAY
They/Them / Denver, CO

I’m simply a human. My time feels the most well-spent building a fire, or in the dirt with grassy knees. My submission to moody this time around is centered around queerness, blood oranges, and the body—in the form of pen on paper.

M. LESTRILLA
She/Her / White Bear Lake, MN

I grew up in a very Americanized household; my Filipina immigrant mother hoped to protect us from the alienation that she experienced once she moved to America. Outside of the home, I was surrounded with very conservative peers, and among them I was unable to fully accept my own sexuality in my teenage years. My journey to discover, accept, and reconcile all of these pieces of identity with each other has been long and complicated. I am now immensely proud to be both biracial and bisexual, but it is an ongoing effort to work through the in-betweenness that comes with these parts of me. My contribution to Moody was freeing to write for myself, and I hope it resonates with others who may be in a similar search for identity and belonging.