Melissa Gay thinks of creating art as illustrating personal myths-- half- remembered bedtime stories, visions from dreams, chance encounters in misty woods, hazy glimpses of far-flung civilizations through a handmade telescope, scenes to be treasured because they are so fleeting.

She has published two art books, Finding My Familiar (animal drawings on toned paper with various pencils) and Earth and Water (ink drawings and paintings), and she is currently working on a book of acrylic sci-fi paintings, called I Dream Of Space. (Gallery owners have chided her for doing too many different things, and instead of stopping, she decided to just lean into it.)

For over twenty years she has created covers and interior illustrations for books and tabletop roleplaying games, freelancing for Baen Books, Llewellyn Worldwide, Hay House, Apex Press, 78 Tarot, Pelgrane Press, Evil Hat, Atlas Games, DoJ, Third Eye Games, Margaret Weis Productions, Lone Wanderer, and many others. Her illustrationd "Offering" and "Harvest" have won Chesley Awards, and many of the games she has worked on have won Gold and Silver ENnies. Her work has been featured in ImagineFX Magazine, io9, tor.com, and several of the Infected By Art anthologies.

Apart from drawing and painting, she happiest when gaming with her spouse or creating her own woodland adventures on hiking trails.