ABOUT | Winona Nelson Art

Artist/writer Winona Nelson was born in 1983 and grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. She has drawn all her life and began painting digitally as a teenager. She studied classical realism and art for the entertainment industry at the Safehouse Atelier in San Francisco. Winona is a queer, Two Spirit Indigenous person, and her fine art often focuses on the stories and history of her tribe, the Ojibwe of Minnesota, and on gender and diversity. She now freelances fulltime, working in illustration, concept art, comics, fine art, children's books, and worldbuilding/IP development. Clients include Marvel Studios, Naughty Dog, Wizards of the Coast, and Scholastic Books. She teaches concept art and illustration for SmArt School. Winona illustrated "If You Lived During the Plimoth Thanksgiving" by Christopher Newell (named one of the School Library Journal's Best Books of 2021 and received starred reviews in the School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews) and "If You Sailed on the Titanic" by Denise Patrick Lewis for Scholastic Books. Past publications include DC: Women of Action, Women of Wonder, Spectrum 17, Spectrum 18, Spectrum 19, Spectrum 20, Gorilla Artbook, Exotique 2, and Exotique 4. Winona has participated in gallery exhibitions in Connecticut, Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York City. She lives in Pennsylvania with artist beau Anthony Palumbo and their gentleman cats, Diego and Tod.