lavender cowboy art

Moth (he/they) ✷ queer self-taught artist, prairie 🐝-ologist, lover of bugs ✷ commissions closed at the moment ✷ active erratically, more present on insta 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ shop: www.lavendercowboy.art

[lavendercowboyart]

I love boobies! 😃

I’ve been seeing so many photos documenting a dashing brown boobie who accidentally made his way to Kansas City, MO. This Caribbean seabird found himself in a landlocked state over 1,000 miles from home and folks aren’t quite sure why he ended up this far north (since even Florida sightings are relatively rare). He seems healthy so there haven’t been any relocation efforts, the hope is that he can rest up before moving on independently. Until then, I hope to keep seeing the photos from birders!

This fella is a gorgeous bird with a lot of character, so I spent some time with him in my sketchbook to do some mixed media work and practice color theory! Have you seen the brown boobie? ✨

Some progress photos:

[lavendercowboyart]

Hey folks! The long-awaited shop update is posting very soon!! 🤠

I’ll be working on getting the new stuff posted to my members-only shop this week / over the next few days before doing a full launch to my regular page at the start of next week :) keep your eyes out for updates!

Just need to count up what I have left from the Ozarks PrideFest and take photos of all of the newer goodies! I am nearly sold out of a few designs (again thank you all so much 🥹) and, since I’ll need to keep some stuff on hand for Pride STL in a couple weeks, I may end up opening up pre-orders for things that I’m out of & those would ship out as soon as I can have them restocked (likely at the start of July). Otherwise i have some other older stuff (mostly small prints/mystery packs) that I’ll be posting as well to clear out — available to members first ofc.

As always, let me know if you have questions! Thank you again for being interested in having my artwork in your lives and homes, I’m so incredibly honored 🥹❤️ talk soon!

[lavendercowboyart]

Tomato hornworm caterpillar on a ripening tomato plant 🍅🐛✨

I’ve been experimenting with more opaque traditional mediums and had a blast trying out some new acrylic markers for this one! It tickled my brain so nicely to layer the different colors that make up the tomatoes and caterpillar. Hope you like lookin’ at it!

💌 Mailing out these stickers to the members of my sticker club at the start of July! If you’d like one it’s not too late to join the club - sign ups for this tomato hornworm are open through the link in my bio (and below) until June 29th :)

Join Lavender Cowboy Art's membership

Support Lavender Cowboy Art monthly

[lavendercowboyart]

This is a two-color riso print of my Eastern Hercules beetle, “Beetle’s Moon”, illustration!

Dynastes tityus, the Eastern Hercules beetle, is one of the largest beetle species found in North America — they also happen to be my favorite! I originally planned to make a purely ecosystem-focused piece for this species (and I may still do a more scientific-illustration-style piece later). But, as I toyed around with the composition, I realized that I really wanted to make the beetle grub feel like the ‘moon’ and pivoted my focus from there. I still stuck with a more natural theming for the background; where the old tree stump stands as the frequent habitat of this species and the morel mushrooms are meant to build on that forest floor feeling.

Only fluorescent pink and mint color inks were used for this one; all of the deep purple tones are from the intermingling of the two. 🙂 The incredibly vibrant colors are one of my favorite aspects of riso (& the fluorescent colors do indeed glow vibrantly under UV light). I’ve since made quite a few more riso pieces between the two riso shops local to me and have several more in the works. If you can’t tell, I’ve been really enjoying both the riso illustration process and the printed results and, if you’re familiar with my work, you may notice a couple new pieces that haven’t made it to my site yet. Those will be up soon; I’m working on another shop update - stay tuned for the announcement! (or, if you’re a sticker club member, keep your eyes out for the newsletter / discount codes / early access!)

Anyway! Thanks so much for reading! Hope you have a great rest of your day (or start of your morning! or restful night of sleep!) 🤠 see ya again soon?

[lavendercowboyart]

My fb algorithm has been sharing Mango with me, a baby toucan at the Naples Zoo, who I’ve absolutely adored seeing grow up. Felt like doodling the lil fella and figured I’d share with y’all! Art by yours truly, photo from the Naples Zoo socials!

Mango looks as sleepy as I feel fr

[lavendercowboyart]

“blood moon loon”, 2026

Featuring a common loon, redear sunfish, and the essence of minnows.

I’m gonna be honest with y’all, I had no idea loons existed until Heated Rivalry… but the “canadian wolf bird” absolutely captivated me and I felt called to illustrate it. Absolutely stunning birds. This one was a bit of a challenge to bring to life (my canvas logged 24 hours of work time haha) but here it is! Swipe down to the end to see a quick timelapse of how much this piece changed throughout my process. Planning to make riso prints and potentiallyyyy stickers - please let me know if you’d be interested in either! Okay bye thank you! ✨

—🌿—

Howdy! I’m Moth, the person behind Lavender Cowboy Art. I’m a queer illustrator with a background in wildlife biology and my love for wildlife and natural ecosystems often influences my work. Please consider following along if you enjoy my work & would like to see more of it! If not, thank you for checking it out and I hope we cross paths again another time. Safe travels, friend! 🫡

[oh-he-grows]

impromptu garden photoshoot with these absolutely gorgeous prints I got from @lavendercowboyart

gotta find some good frames for them so I can look at them all day long

[tomorrowsgardennc]

hey i got some @lavendercowboyart too!!!

[lavendercowboyart]

AAAH and this is such a good picture too! Thank uuu!

[oh-he-grows]

impromptu garden photoshoot with these absolutely gorgeous prints I got from @lavendercowboyart

gotta find some good frames for them so I can look at them all day long

[lavendercowboyart]

Love this!! Thank you so much!

[lavendercowboyart]

Wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) can be found throughout most of Canada, AK, and the Northeastern and Midwestern US, but survive as far south as GA and as far west as CO. Adult wood frogs are one of the few animals who survive winter by freezing totally solid! 🥶 In early spring they thaw and reanimate, and in many locations you can hear the adults calling through March and early April. Eggs for the next generation generally hatch by May and tadpoles have their legs and will begin emerging as adults by June. Because their survival through winter is essentially a delicate balance of cellular antifreeze, the presence of road salt in their environment can cause defects that lead to fatality. Their breeding takes place in vernal (temporary) pools of water and tadpoles perish if those ponds dry up before they finish developing. It is so fascinating to consider the careful balance of our surrounding ecosystem.

My sticker club for March (now closed) features a wood frog sticker and this piece is the bonus mini print for the month! Check out my post about that design on instagram to hear what a wood frog call sounds like 🙂 Sign ups for the April sticker club, design revealed by mid-April and mailed the first week of May, are open now! Did you miss the March sign ups but want a print of this piece anyway? Let me know, I may make prints available!

—🌿—

Howdy! I’m Moth, the person behind Lavender Cowboy Art! I’m a queer illustrator with a background in wildlife biology (focused on bumble bee research). My love for wildlife and natural ecosystems often influences my work and I’m slowly but surely working on developing my art style(s). I’m most often drawing critters and have been particularly fond of working with warm but vibrant colors lately. It makes me feel at home. As a disabled queer person myself, i feel that being visible and loud about chronic pain, equal access, and the right to bodily autonomy for all is essential. Sometimes being a little silly about it is the only way to get the message to spread. My art frequently reflects that. Thanks for reading this far, hope we cross paths again another time. Safe travels, friend! 🫡

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[stariteart]

🏳️‍⚧️ TRANSGENDER DAY OF VISIBILITY 🏳️‍⚧️

DON'T LET THE BASTARDS GET YOU DOWN

[lavendercowboyart]

Now, always, forever. TDOV 🏳️‍⚧️

Happy trans day of visibility to all of my trans siblings! Trans people saved my life and taught me that you can be yourself and still be loved. Trans people in my life taught me that it is possible to feel comfortable in my own skin. My trans friends taught me kindness and tenderness. My journey as a trans person has taught me perseverance, courage, self love.. Today is Trans Day of Visibility to remind folks that trans people are individuals, people, parents, friends, classmates, workers… we aren’t a monolith. And yet, every day legislation is being introduced to ‘remove’ trans people. But remember that, as it always has been and forever will be, no matter how many laws are passed or rights are stripped, you can’t make a trans person cisgender. You can’t erase us.

In honor of TDOV, use code VISIBILTY at checkout for 25% off any items from my pride collection from now until 4/1/26 at 11:59pm CST.

lavendercowboy.art <3

[lavendercowboyart]

i just love making beetle art 🪲

[lavendercowboyart]

edit: now available as a print!

[lavendercowboyart]

and now also as a riso print, if ur into that sort of thing 😏

[lavendercowboyart]

"The Beetle's moon", 2025

Dynastes tityus, the Eastern Hercules beetle, is one of the largest beetle species found in North America -- they also happen to be my favorite!

I originally planned to make a purely ecosystem-focused piece for this species (and I may still do a more scientific-illustration-style piece later). But, as I toyed around the the composition, I realized that I really wanted to make the beetle grub feel like the 'moon' and pivoted my focus from there. I still stuck with a more natural tone for the background theming and drew the old tree stump to represent its place as a frequent habitat for this species and several morel mushrooms to bring that forest floor feeling.

This illustration was really fun (and a little challenging at points) and I'm excited bring this to life as a riso print through a local shop in the near future!

[lavendercowboyart]

I had the riso prints made!! I just adore how the colors lightened up and more texture came through. Ugh—

https://lavendercowboy.art/market/p/hercules-beetle-riso

[lavendercowboyart]

A celestial wedding 💫

I’ve been pondering how truly gorgeous and vibrant nature can be and I feel like snakes are one vastly under appreciated example. As a kid I remember being deeply interested in snakes (and lizards, and frogs, and bugs, etc) and ring-necked snakes and garters were always some of my favorites to come across. The bright colors and almost mysterious and frequently misunderstood nature of these critters drew me in and kept me wanting more. I’ve also found myself similarly drawn to the stars in the night sky, just simply in awe of how something can be so beautiful and so vast. I would wonder as a young kid where the stars would disappear to in the daytime, just as I would wonder where the snakes would go when not visible. But, as I’ve learned with time, nothing truly leaves us. It just carries on in a different way.

This piece is my illustration of the meeting of a ring-necked snake (Diadophis punctatus) and a San Francisco garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia) at twilight, intertwined with bold stars. The diurnal habits of the garter snake and nocturnal behavior of the ring-necked snake means that these two, though they may exist in the same ecological niche, likely rarely interact. I’ve been feeling particularly inspired by the use of bold and intentional angles and lines in art lately, as you can see most easily with my recent eel piece, and I wanted to play with and explore more of that free-but-constrained feeling with this one by mixing thin with bold lines and hard turns with gentle slopes. It was a lot of fun to challenge myself with the composition here and I’m really happy with how it turned out

Planning to make risograph prints of this piece in the new year, stay tuned! :)

[lavendercowboyart]

Riso prints now available!! I’m so happy with how they turned out 🤧

https://lavendercowboy.art/market/p/celestial-wedding-riso

[lavendercowboyart]

“In the margins”, 2025

The margined burying beetle (Nicrophorus marginatus) is a carrion beetle native to North America. I won’t go into much detail here in case you’re feeling kinda squeamish, but the aptly named burying beetles raise their young in “crypts”; formed from the flesh of dead vertebrates that the adults processed and buried. Both parents then stick around and raise their grubs all while defending their fleshy nursery from competitors until the larvae pupate. It’s not often that non-eusocial insects care for their young, so it’s really neat that burying beetles take such great care in ensuring their grubs make it to beetle-hood! 🪲🦴🍄

I’m solidly back in my beetle era, so my page may be pretty beetle-heavy for a bit. I’ve also been having a blast with ecosystem/insect lifecycle pieces as well lately and have a few more on the back burner that I’m slowly chipping away at! Are there any particular insects/invertebrates/ecosystem scenes you’d really like to see me illustrate? Let me know!

[lavendercowboyart]

Riso prints here!! 💥

"In the Margins" Burying Beetle riso print — ✦ LAVENDER COWBOY ART ✦

This is a riso print of my margined burying beetle, “In the margins”, illustration! The margined burying beetle ( Nicrophorus marginatus )

[lavendercowboyart]

Spring shop update is live!!

New risos, many new sticker designs, and a handful of brand new dishwasher-safe/uv-resistant versions of some of my most popular stickers!

Sticker club members: don’t forget about the shop discount codes included with your monthly newsletter (and posted on ko-fi)!

www.lavendercowboy.art

Wildlife biologist making and sharing silly queer and nature-inspired art. Shop now! @lavendercowboyart

[lavendercowboyart]

I don’t know about y’all, but my social media algorithm keeps showing me leaf bugs. Are leaf bugs trending right now or is it just me? Regardless, I felt compelled to draw one so here’s my rendition of a hidden leaf insect (specifically, a species within the Cryptophyllium genus)