René Espejo
René Espejo is a self-taught first-gen Afro-Indo-Caribbean artist, originally from New Jersey but now a longtime resident of San Francisco. René's artistic journey sprang from many different streams of interest: their love of reading their older brother's X-Men, Sonic the Hedgehog, DC comics. As well as RPG and JRPG fantasy video games, Japanese Anime and American Cartoons, Vanity Fair Magazines, and the hazy familial tales from their parents' home country of Jamaica. During their childhood, René was raised in a strict Pentecostal Christian home, and so art and storytelling were one of the few ways that they were able to escape. Despite being raised in a strict Christian home, René was also aware of the long line of Obeah practitioners that existed on their father's side of the family. Around the time when René discovered their identity as both a queer and agender person, they also rejected their childhood religion and came into their own spiritual identity as a witch. Their art is a celebration of many different worlds coming together to coexist and is also part of their spiritual practices. Through queer identity, witchcraft, fantasy, and Caribbean flair, their work examines many different topics. Through their work, they envision a world that celebrates "The Witch" and that makes space for those who are historically marginalized and vilified. The subjects of their work are almost exclusively queer and trans people of color, but through the lens of fantasy. These characters exist as a "reversed rejection" to a society that has rejected them. René hopes to continue to create a body of work that highlights the lives and experiences of queer and trans people of color, and that further reminds viewers that these stories, these stories can never truly be erased, regardless of what the world at large does. Like the witch who has been burned at the stake, our spirits and our stories will keep coming back and continue to live on for generations to come.