NOAH GRIGNI
freelance illustrator
they/them

Noah Grigni is a white, disabled, trans author and illustrator from Atlanta. They are passionate about making art with their community, exploring themes of love, death, ecology, dreams, liberation, and prison abolition. Through their artistic and community-based practices, they seek to nourish the radical imagination and build a culture of care and interdependence. They often return to motifs of monsters and shapeshifters in their art, as they experience the world through the lens of their own dysphoria, CPTSD, and chronic pain. Their work is driven by a burning desire to resist carceral capitalism, disrupt environmental devastation, and live to see a people's revolution. Noah can often be found gardening, wandering the woods, making music with their friends, facilitating events in their community, and volunteering in their local food justice network.
Noah's favorite quotes are:
"The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible." -- Toni Cade Bambara
"The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don't see." -- James Baldwin
books:
Noah is the illustrator of It Feels Good To Be Yourself by Theresa Thorn (2019), The Every Body Book by Rachel Simon (2020), and The Gender Identity Workbook For Kids by Kelly Storck (2018). They are currently illustrating The Every Body Book of Consent by Rachel Simon (coming 2024), The Right To Belong by Judy Heumann (coming 2025), and their own authorial debut, Mama Moon: A Story About Love and Mental Illness (coming 2025).
links:
If you like my art, you can follow me on Instagram to see some of it, or support me on Patreon to see all of it (and even get stuff in the mail!) I also have pins for sale here, and I have a free printable art activity for kids here. I am currently taking a break from selling my art on Etsy and Shirts4Change to focus on finishing my book.
recent work:
Protect Trans Dreams, my show at Boston Children's Museum, just ended!
Protect Trans Dreams was a series of life size acrylic portraits of local trans kids, painted in dream scenarios they described to me, on display at Boston Children's Museum from April 13th to July 24th, 2022. I worked on this project for three years, from 2019 to 2022, in collaboration with families in my community. I honestly can't believe it happened! You can see the paintings here on my site, and learn more about the project from Boston Globe, TransLash Media, and WBUR Public Radio.
current work:
I am slowly and steadily working on my first solo children's book, Mama Moon, and my first graphic novel, Cloudland. Both books are deeply personal, and are scheduled to be published in 2025 by Henry Holt! Mama Moon is a picture book about a child who muses that their mother, who has bipolar disorder, is like the moon. Cloudland is the story of a trans boy's first crush, at an all-girls summer camp in rural Georgia. Both books are based on my own childhood memories. I've been working on these two stories for what feels like forever, and I cannot wait to put them into the world!
published work:
I am the illustrator of It Feels Good To Be Yourself by Theresa Thorn (2019), The Every Body Book by Rachel Simon (2020), and The Gender Identity Workbook For Kids by Kelly Storck (2018). My art has also appeared in We're Still Here: An All Trans Comics Anthology (2018), The Transgender Heroes Coloring Book (2019), and on the covers of Rolling Warrior by Judy Heumann (2021), Too Bright To See by Kyle Lukoff (2021), The Ship We Built by Lexie Bean (2020), The Other Animals by Audible (2019), and Boston Pride Guide (2019 and 2020).
contact:
Say hi, don’t be shy! I am still booking events and school visits for 2022, with limited availability. If you are interested in hiring me to illustrate a book or book cover, please contact my literary agent, Kelly Sonnack, at kelly@andreabrownlit.com. For all other inquiries, please use the form below.
education:
I graduated from Lesley University in 2018, with a BFA in Illustration and a concentration in Creative Writing. I also completed an AIR Serenbe Focus Fellowship in 2020, and returned to Serenbe for an independent residency in 2021. I would love to do more residencies and fellowships! I am always looking for opportunities to continue my education, within and outside of academic structures. I believe in the power of communal knowledge; my community has taught me more than any institution ever could. I am always learning and unlearning!
values:
I believe in art as a means of nurturing dreams, healing from trauma, and envisioning change, at both individual and collective scales. I believe in adrienne maree brown's fractal model of change: how we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale. Therefore, we cannot enact systemic change in the world at large, without first visualizing change in ourselves and our communities, through art and other means of generative communication. I use my art to imagine a more equitable future, free of cissexism, ableism, and carceral punishment. I strive throughout my life and work to honor the Earth, resist capitalism, and stand in solidarity with Black and brown peers leading the movement towards collective liberation. I support abolition of police and prisons, reparations, and Land Back. I believe that we have all the tools we need to dismantle systems of oppression and replace them with networks of community care, centering the most marginalized. I believe that artists have the power to remind people of their humanity, and inspire direct action towards liberation.
identity:
I am a white, transmasculine, disabled, trauma survivor. I strive in and out of work to be allied with, and follow the leadership of, Black, Indigenous, migrant, poor, femme, fat, sex worker, and other marginalized communities. If you are looking to hire an artist who identifies within these communities, please feel free to reach out, and I will provide referrals to the best of my ability!
partial client list:
My clients are typically activists, educators, writers, publishers, and community organizers. Past illustration clients include Southern Fried Queer Pride, Trans Resistance MA, Transmasculinidad, Boston Pride, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Audible, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, New Harbinger Press, Beacon Press, Utile Design, and Berklee College. (These are clients who hired me to make art; see below for clients who hired me for speaking and teaching.)









in the news:
WBUR covers Protect Trans Dreams (2022)
TransLash Media covers Protect Trans Dreams (2022)
Boston Globe covers Protect Trans Dreams (2022)
MA Latino News covers Protect Trans Dreams (2022)
Profile in the Boston Compass (2021)
AIR SFI Independent Residency (2021)
AIR Serenbe Focus Fellowship (2020)
Emotion Revolution: Virtual Show (2020)
WBUR: The ARTery covers Emotion Revolution (2020)
My Q&A for Zone 3: Art In Print in Allston (2020)
Interview for OurShelves (2019)
Feature in The Boston Globe (2018)
Dig Boston covers Displaced (2018)
Boston Art Review covers SanQtuary (2017)
