portrait of Lady Grey wearing purple-pink shoulder length hair. They have bold dark purple lipstick and eyeshadow

Cozy Corner

Outside of academia, I strive to maintain a vibrant life of creativity and community. It’s hard to divorce my scholarly self from my everyday as I bring a certain perspective to the table every time I arrive.

I thrive in the cool air of fall before the final rain that strips the trees. It’s the cozy warmth of sweaters, the crunch of leaves, and the giant harvest moon welcoming the adoring eyes of nature. There’s a different type of quiet that comes whispering in the autumnal breeze. I love finding the quiet in loud art.

portrait of Lady Grey wearing all black with a platinum blonde should-length wig. They are wearing a black fascinator, have a bold red lip, and black makeup across their face with white letters "The Future" like in Cruella

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.”

digital painting of Frenell, a wide-eyed, purple-haired high fantasy gnome. She is wearing large green glasses, has a steaming cup of tea, and has purple flowers in her hair.

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

I am a regular cast member of Seekers of the Fall, a Pathfinder 2e campaign set in the imaginative world of Evindale created by Steve Kraus. Although SotF is set in a dark fantasy era, I play 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 have 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 photography, painting, animation, voice acting, and video gaming. I tend to play cozy story-based video games, and can’t watch tv or movies without noticing how the cinematography, lighting, and music contribute to the story.

My primary tech expertise is in Adobe Lightroom, After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro. 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 learning Cubase and Davinci Resolve.