street wings

Meg and I found this perfect paint spill

And then, night after night, Michelle would introduce me on the mic as 'he' and that was alright, it was really alright. Each town would watch me get on stage and approve, and laugh and applaud and treat me like a human being afterwards, and roll these new syllables off their tongues, him or he or his. I even started to look forward to climbing those stairs into the spotlight of endorsement.

Trans Underwear Modelling Project

Hahaha colouring when left to my own devices! Check out this project in rational tones at http://transunderwear.blogspot.com/

She Holiday

trans?

The first person to publicly call me 'he' was Michelle Tea. Huh. Some brave coming-out story this is. I thought it would be masterful. I thought the heavens would open and a halleluja chorus would sing as my true identity finally revealed itself. I thought the handsome man buried in my mirror would emerge for all the world to see.

But instead, this is what happened. Michelle went onstage and said "the next performer is Elisha Lim. He is a graphic novelist and he will be publishing his book 100 Butches this year." I stood at the bottom of the stage stairs and froze.

I can't go up there.

I can't follow that introduction.

That's not me.

I'm not that 'he'.

This is terrifying.

Aaaack.

candy tourism

I ate so much chocolate in America. I tried to document it from my backseat in the van. I have to learn how to use audio. It's precariously set to a song I wrote once.

drunk butch wax art...

happy face

My back alley is much less cheerful than the one I grew up in. This plastic yellow pail got broken into pieces last week.

Bittersweet. Is this a rare celebration of raw, unflitered Asian masculinity or the reinforcement of a stereotype? Either way it bears the pride of flying outside of an Asian-run business downtown, and it's a very lovely portrait.

I was very proud of this picture! It's a very old portrait of a guy I love with the view from Robarts starting in the background.

drawing this was one of the happiest moments in my life - great company, butch identification, the allure of Berlin and an immense sense of freedom. I'd wanted to use one of my own drawings as a tattoo - I think this will be it. Where should it go...?

genderfOC

I am so proud to participate in this! Power to us!

new tattoo

I'm still on tour and never online but I wanted to document this rather impulsive tour adventure - an airplane tattoo. Do you ever feel like you're always moving, or that your heart is always far away? So do I! This plane is flying from my throat down my arm.

peewee herman

Ok this is it! I'm going away! 6 weeks on the road for the most mind blowing honour I've ever had, a 100 Butches book tour with Michelle Tea. I'm going to be away from the blog for a long while now. Thank you for reading, I'll be back in mid-May, and please, if you're on any of this list of cities please come OUT and say HI! sisterspit.org/tourscheduleUStour.html xoxoxo love Elisha

Inspector Gadget

vietnamese tea

Qiu Jin

This was an early draft of a 100 Butches comic about this legendary Chinese heroine.

one hundred percent mixed race

words by thea lim for mixed-race project "100%"

ok I know this is cheating because it's not my art. Hum, can I call it my muse? This is one of my all time favourite photographs. It's my dad at 19, in a mysteriously sentimental pose with his friend Henry. I find these buried photos of my dad in our storage room and they are my butch role models.

pho

this was a very pleasing lunch.

100 Butches #4

hmmm... is it strange to have a business card with someone else's picture on it? This is one of my favourite drawings of emma.

casette tape

I didn't have internet for 5 days! I wasn't keeping up with my promise! What would Julia Child say? Gah, not that I liked that movie too much. But now I'm back and I'm going to retrace these last five days, and backdate the bits of art that I've been collecting since thursday.

globe and mail facts and arguments

the newspaper published an essay about feeling twenty five even though you're 65. So I drew a picture of my dad, as a window reflection. He's looking out at an image of himself taken from my favourite photograph from his university days in the 60s. Dad, I hope this isn't a bummer...! xoxox

Vincent Lim

Drafts of an illustration for the Globe and Mail's March 26th Facts and Arguments

I wasn't terribly proud of this edition of The Illustrated Gentleman. The bottom drawing is really patchy and the advice verges on elitist. I didn't sufficiently explain my intention, which was just to survey men's advice columns. I think it looks like this is my sincere, snooty opinion. In any case I'm grateful to the folks at nomorepotlucks.org - they love my art and take the good with the not so good.

G-Dragon

Asian Stud

Chase told me about how G-Dragon is his favourite asian male role model because he revels in queerness but he's still a mainstream Korean heartthrob

Asian Stud

A drag king never relaxes he just works on a new pose

transphobia

100 Butches 100 cover ideas

So I'm proud to be touring with this book on Michelle's Sister Spit tour. Please come out if you live in any of these places! San Francisco, Oregon, Vancouver, Utah, Longbeach, Grand Junction Colorado, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Holyoke, xoxo

another cover idea

Gulabi Gang

she's my sister!

100 Butches #9 draft 1

unpublished draft

mummy

pastels. whoo, not so easy

toronto messenger

syrus marcus ware

new drawing from me and Thea's mixed race project - and one of my local heroes too. Yay Syrus! http://onehundredpercentmixed.tumblr.com/

water-colour pencils

megha!

they got a new haircut

carole pope & dusty springfield

were lesbian lovers! who knew?
for Diva magazine

my sister wrote this

one of my favourite pictures of my sister Thea

stud

I like the stuff he takes off at night

partytime

lyrics to my favourite song by partytime

www.nomorepotlucks.org

love times twelve

today you got punched on the street. It was a random act of violence, and it was racist too. I don't know you and you don't know me, but we sat together for a while. I showed you a photograph of yourself so you could see that the blood was gone.
It meant a lot to me to share in your grief, and I'm glad that you let me sit with you for a while.

Trials of the Butch-lovin-Butch

I was so pleased to hear that some of you know this feeling so I thought I'd polish it up.