The Wildcrafting Our Queerness Project

Raina Rue

Raina Rue is an illustrator and craftswoman working out of Winchester, Kentucky under the name Juniper Moon Folk Arts. Hailing from the small town of Irvine, Kentucky, Rue creates vibrant pieces of jewelry, pins, and accessories, all adorned with her unique style of illustration. These illustrations pull from the numerous (and often intersecting) elements of queer and Appalachian cultures. Pride flags, Kentucky agate, opossums, morel mushrooms, radical labor history, and intersectional feminism all appear with equal likelihood in Rue's body of work. Central to her understanding of artmaking is a desire for dignity and accessibility for other rural LGBTQ+ people. Contrary to popular depictions of Appalachia and other rural areas, Rue's art displays aspects of queer and rural lives as compatible and often complementary. Rue's pieces enable LGBTQ+ people across Appalachia and other rural areas to express their gender, sexual, and geographic identities in a multitude of colorful and personal illustrations. At the same time, many of her pins and accessories are small, allowing their wearer to tuck them away when necessary and maintain control over their visibility when navigating through their homes and elsewhere.

Raina Rue's art can be seen on the Juniper Moon Folk Arts Instagram account and can be bought on her Etsy page.

Rue is also currently in the process of writing and illustrating a young adult semi-autobiography, The Wild Life of One Velveteen Sams. More information about this book is available on its Indiegogo page. 

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