Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Khepri Willier. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Khepri, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

I am trans male, grew up and lived as a girl for 24 years of my life and then transitioned and have been living as my true self since then, about 10 years. I identify as trans masculine nonbinary, so I don’t really feel that gender stereotypes fit me well, but I prefer to be seen in a masculine direction. After I started taking testosterone, grew a beard, and my voice dropped, people treated me starkly differently. Once I was seen as “male” people, especially cis men, treated me with more regard and respect. They would greet me by shaking my hand and looking directly in my eyes, something I never had happen when I appeared more “female.” My partner at the time was cis female, and these people would immediately regard her as a helper or employee and assume I was the artist and owner of the business. She did all the finances but because she seemed to be “a girl” she was counted out. It was so strange.
On the flip side people who knew I was trans started treating me different too. A friend I had for a long time refused to sleep in the same room as me even though we had had sleep overs before. A man who I worked with was angry that he “couldn’t punch me because it would be a hate crime” and that I wasn’t “a real man” because of that.

Khepri, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am an artist. I run a business selling my art on metal prints which I make myself. I also do gender affirming caricatures and sell hand made pride items. I sell my art at conventions and events around the country and have been doing this full time for over 8 years. My partner and I enjoy running the business in a way that helps the community. We try to make queer people feel valid at our booth, and provide products and free items to facilitate that feeling. We also print on metal for small artists like us so there is an affordable way to get product made and still make profit as a small business.
We do all kinds of custom art like portraits, pet portraits, anime and game fan art, custom character art, and more.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

There is no “make art” button. But sadly, now, there is. AI art is extremely detrimental to human artists because almost every program for AI art is based off stealing source images from artists without their permission. Twitter/X recently changed their existing terms of service that anything you’ve uploaded in the past can be used for their ai art program. This means that if you’ve used that platform to promote your art at any time and uploaded images, Twitter now owns them and will use them to make ai “art”. This never came with a choice other than deleting everything on your account and hoping the website didn’t archive your images already.
Please, hire real artists. Share real artists work with credit. Learn to tell the difference between human and ai images. We are struggling so much with algorithms not favoring original content and now our own images are being used to replace us.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Please visit craft faires, festivals, events and conventions. Find the small artists and look for something unique. Buy from artists directly. Commission custom pieces from artists. Treat art like a real job and respect it, we cannot work for “exposure.” Most of all just try to think of all the work that goes into each piece of art and appreciate that. That’s all we want, is to be treated with respect and supported.

Contact Info:

• Website: Linktr.ee/setsaled
• Instagram: Prismatic Oasis Designs
• Facebook: Prismatic Oasis Designs
• Youtube: Prismatic Oasis Animations

Image Credits
Prismatic Oasis Designs