So what makes me tick? Why do I draw what I do? Who am I, really? Pineapple on pizza or no? Let's see what skeletons we can dig up, shall we?

I read your About page, but that talks about you as an artist. What about you as a person?

Well, my legal name is Melissa Moore, however I also answer to Megan, Requiem, Damien/ne, and if you can't remember my name, I HAVE PIZZA!, Wichuay Diddigo George, Artist Person, or Hey You are also fine, too. I'm a feral Gen-Xer with a DILLIGAF attitude about most things. I'm a gamer, and I play everything from Among Us to ZZT. I'm also a classically trained violist/cellist, with a wide variety of other instruments in my repertoire. My pronouns are she/her, however I'm fine with he and they, too: a chaos goblin by any other pronoun is still a Keter class anomaly spreading ink, ideas, and unpredictable outcomes. The perfect pizza is a Round Table King Arthur's Supreme with pineapple and shrimp add-ons, and this is not up for debate.

Wait, Wichuay Diddigo George? That's an odd name, can you explain it?

For some reason, "Melissa", despite being the third most popular name for my generation, is oddly forgettable. So, I have a litany of other names you can pick from. If you still can't remember my name, it's okay, I forgive you, Lennie.

What's with all the weird names?

I am not the same person from one person to the next. The woman who looks in the mirror is not the same person as the citizen who waits in line in the DMV, who is not the same mother that kisses a child's booboo better, or the little girl learning to ride a bike however-many-years-ago, or the dear friend who answers the phone at 3am. Each person develops their own views of me, each catering to how they perceive me to be based on what their knowledge of me is. To some, I am a hero, to others a villain, to some a friend, to others of no consequence. Why should I not perceive myself with the same freedom?

So what kind of art do you make?

It's hard to pin me, as an artist, into a singular genre. One day I may be drawing adorable teddy bears, while the next those teddy bears will be making you question your childhood. However, I tend to lean to chiaroscuro, gothic and horror themes, and visceral emotions. I would say it would be most fair to describe the majority of my art as Macabre Expressionism and Dark Art.

Why is your darkest stuff all evil, morbid, and disturbing?

First, I don't believe in "evil." I believe in good and bad intentions, helpful and harmful actions, and choices made in good faith and in bad. Morality isn't binary. It's an intersection of context, consequence, and intent. Everything is inherently neutral until we put our will in motion.

That said, I'm drawn to the darker, more unsettling aspects of life and imagination precisely because they're the ones we're told to avoid. They evoke visceral emotions: fear, grief, desire, shock, pain, and awe... and then force us to confront the parts of ourselves we'd rather ignore: death, decay, trauma, doubt, need, and vulnerability. Art gives us a safe space to explore the shadows within ourselves without judgment, and in doing so, we create room to process, reflect, and heal.

If my darker works offend or disturb you... perhaps that's the point. Not to provoke for the sake of it, but to ask... "Why does it unsettle you?" ...and what might you learn from sitting with that discomfort?

What are your favorite mediums to work in?

Ink, first and foremost. It's like tattooing paper: it's unforgiving. Every little mistake becomes either a "happy little tree" or an existential crisis. After this, digital is next in line, because splatter brushes are so much easier to use and clean up than actual splatters. Pulling up third is acrylics. There is just so much vibrancy and options that any given trip to the store for canvases means I also walk away with a new color of paint I may or may not actually use.

Do you take commissions?

Reach out to me at commissions@halfburiedink.com with your idea, and we can discuss this. I reserve the right to refuse, or to simply disappear into the mists, at my discretion.

What are your opinions on AI art?

I've written an entire article on it, but in short, I support it as a tool for professionals, an aid for non-artists, and would rather teach a non-artist how to use AI than to see them pay someone else to do what they themselves can do. Teach a man to fish, and all that.

Are you neurodivergent?

Technically no. In truth, probably. Undiagnosed, but you don't survive this much chaos, trauma, and SQUIRREL! moments and still suspect you're neurotypical.

Are you part of the alphabet soup?

I am. I wave a lot of different flags, and a d20 roll determines how I express myself today. I don't care what flags you fly, or if you fly any at all. All I ask that that you speak and act in good faith, and not be a jerk, and we'll get along fine.

You seem really weird. Is that on purpose?

Not entirely. The cheese slid off the cracker a long time ago, and you know the old saying, "That which doesn't kill you makes you the proud owner of a bunch of unhealthy coping mechanisms and an alarmingly dark sense of humor".

Are you actually human?

Debatable. I identify as an eldritch entity made of starstuff and packed with twelve years of artificial intelligence stuck in a hivemind commune of amoebas with anxiety and opinions. I will also accept "stray kitten", "old dog", "black dragon", and "chaos goblin" as valid identities. I fail CAPTCHA tests and "prove you're human" prompts more often than actual AIs do, and after working for years in customer service, sales, and telemarketing, having been asked this on a daily basis, I'm including it as my most frequently asked question ever.

What are your favorite games?

Any RPG that tells a deep story. While I respect the 300 hours it takes to completely finish Skyrim, I would rather have the 800,000 words of dialogue in Planescape:Torment, and learn how a thorny picture frame, an overstarched shirt, and the blackest ink wrung from a rotten fish, can weave the magic that lets you learn who you are beneath the shell of a human that you have become. However, I won't deny there's been at least one JRPG where I've cried during a cutscene. I also enjoy Roguelikes, FPSes, Simulations, RTSes, and card games.

You said you're a classically trained musician?

Yup. I spent 6 years playing viola in school, as well as the local college's orchestra and the county youth orchestra. I also played cello when needed, and spent a year studying the guitar as well. Beyond this, I can also play piano, harmonica, tin whistle, recorder, flute, and kalimba. I also have a hand drum and lyre still to be picked up. Beyond this, I'd include software like Trackers and DAWs over the years as well.

Politics? Religion? Values?

Politically, I'd describe myself as a libertarian socialist with mutualist leanings, favoring syndicalism and co-ops for large businesses, participatory economics for pay and decision-making, and municipalist governance backed by Universal Basic Services as a social floor. In simpler terms: I don't think CEOs who sit in boardrooms all day deserve billions while the people doing the actual work make pennies. Everyone should be paid fairly for the effort they put in and the BS they deal with. The bigger a company gets, the more it should listen to its workers, rather than letting a yacht-dwelling figurehead decide their fate from on high. I believe we all benefit from collectively funding basics like roads, schools, utilities, medical, and housing, so that nobody is ever truly without the means of survival and self-improvement, but people should always have the option to improve upon the baseline (think public school vs. private school).

As for religion, I'm something of an Atheopagan or soft polytheist. I find sacredness in the natural world and its cycles of life and death. To me, gods and similar entities all fall into various categories: egregores, tulpas, archetypes, metaphors, and personifications of nature. Whether or not they "exist" in the literal sense isn't the point. What matters is what they mean to us, how they shape us, and how belief, be it ours or others', has shaped history in ways that reverberate through culture, society, and the soul.

I don't believe in a literal afterlife (though I enjoy them as metaphorical devices), or divine rewards or punishment, or memory being carried forward through reincarnation. I believe in a return of awareness: when the universe rolls its dice enough times, sometimes a spark happens, and awareness occurs. I believe that consciousness (that is, the feeling of being the aware protagonist in my own story instead of being a background character in yours) is not a soul that travels across time, space, and dimensions, but rather is a rare pattern that emerges when conditions are just right. It happened once in this human being named Melissa. It could happen again, somewhere, someday, but it won't be "Melissa". It'll be someone or something else, aware and experiencing the world as the protagonist for the very first time, just like I am now.

I believe that we should be true to our inner selves instead of putting on a mask and performing because other people say we ought to. We should learn as much as possible, love as strongly as we can, and try to understand the world through the eyes of everyone we come across. Life is too short to worry about petty things that don't affect us personally, or to treat people unkindly simply because we cannot understand their walk of life... and times are too tough to burn bridges we haven't even built yet.

Do you do conventions or shows?

Absolutely! You can see my upcoming events here.

So who's that devil I keep seeing?

That's Tenebrous Rex, Lord of dark ideas, Prince of pointing the way, and the site's mascot.

...And that tentacle?

What tentacle?

You're weird.

1.) That's not a question. 2.) Thank you.