Cozy Corner
Outside of filmmaking, I strive to maintain a vibrant life of creativity and community. It’s hard to divorce my scholarly and creative self from my everyday, as I bring a certain perspective to the table every time I arrive.
Imagine the cool air of fall before the final rain that strips the trees. The memory of cozy sweaters, the crunch of leaves, or the slowing sound of crickets against a giant harvest moon welcoming all to nature’s stage. There’s a different type of quiet that comes whispering on that breeze. I love finding the quiet in loud art.
Storytelling through Drag
The clearest avenue where work and social collide is through drag. My drag persona, Lady Grey, is a fumbly bumbly monarch with a comedic slant housed in a darker aesthetic replete with purples and blacks. Today, you can often see traces from her earlier multi-persona days where my drag name “Apple” served as the base moniker, with various characters revealed in performance like “Johnna Gold,” “Honey Crisp,” or “Jonathan.”
Storytelling at the Table
As a tabletop role-player and Game Master, my goal is to always challenge myself and my players to dream bigger. We’re playing make believe, after all. You’re only limited by a lack of imagination or unwillingness to feel.
Frenell Leega by Julian Grey via Procreate, 2023
Previously, I have been a regular cast member of Twitch production of Seekers of the Fall, a Pathfinder 2e campaign set in a dark fantasy era. I played Frenell Leega, a wide-eyed, purple-haired high fantasy gnome with a bumbling personality and penchant for asking questions. She always has a cup of tea ready for any that need it. For years they lived peacefully in their cottage deep in the forest in the center of Tirfol Breg. Frenell spends their day dutifully tending to their library filled with small parchments covered in runes, packets of seeds from plants long forgotten, and a wide array of items they’ve rescued from along the sides of paths, undoubtedly at their true owners’ dismay! Frenell hopes to one day return all the collected items, for their owners must truly miss their lost possessions. In joining the other seekers of The Fall, Frenell has decided to leave her cozy home on a new quest to seek out the lost and help them find their owners.
I am also an active G.M., most recently seen crafting tales for players like the Murder Mystery Mavens, a group of golden gals that moonlight as detectives in a cozy cthonic horror TTRPG set in the quaint New England town of Brindlewood Bay. I’m also a fan of Apothecaria, Quietus, and Godkiller.
Tea Tidings
“No matter what is happening in your life, you always offer tea.”
- Clemantine Wamariya
Offer me a cup of quality tea and you can roll with fortune. I love robust teas that don’t need milk or sugar (infusions/tisanes allowed!). Some of my favs are Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Lemon Lavender, Cinnamon, Strawberry (Ahmad Tea of London has a great one). While it doesn’t happen often, I’m also a sucker for a good apple cider in the fall and hot chocolate in the winter—yes marshmallows.
Other Artistic Endeavors
While not always embroiled in storytelling, per se, I continue to apply the lessons learned in other mediums such as painting, animation, voice acting, and video gaming. I tend to play cozy story-based video games, and can’t read books without imagining how potential cinematography, lighting, and music could contribute to the story.
My primary tech expertise is in Adobe (Premiere Pro, Lightroom, After Effects, and Photoshop), but we’re constantly learning. Over the years I’ve filmed and edited multiple digital drag numbers for myself and others, sub-contracted AE animation for the Natural Resources Defense Council, and created countless materials for content creators (emotes, overlays, videos—animated and static). In the past, I loved using Logic Pro and Ableton Live, but am currently using Cubase and Davinci Resolve.