Meet the Ghosts of Illustrator Esmé Shapiro’s Painted Dreams

This isn’t my first post about Esmé Shapiro. I last shared her illus­tra­tions a cou­ple of years ago, and before that, when she was a recent illus­tra­tion grad at RISD. Since then, she’s pub­lished mul­ti­ple books and tak­en on a num­ber of edi­to­r­i­al com­mis­sions. Her visu­al lan­guage is a mix­ture of real­i­ty that col­lides fantasy—such as larg­er-than-life char­ac­ters or eerie places. Esmé’s lat­est Insta­gram posts, for instance, revolve around dreams she or oth­ers have had. They are dark and moody with appari­tion who vis­it the char­ac­ters. Rich­ly lay­ered, I love explor­ing both the world Esmé has cre­at­ed and their content.

Want to own some of her work? Esmé sells a selec­tion of it in her online shop.