About Studio Kei

Original Artworks + Designs by Kei Weaver

Hi! I do controlled experiments in watercolor and ink. And sometimes chill kawaii designs.

I focus on creating collectible, 1-of-1 original artworks under the Kei signature. The reflective mica highlights of these paintings can't be reproduced and shift based on one's viewing angle.

I also afford myself space to release absolutely whatever under the Studio Kei label: ghost cat stickers (now available!), giclée prints and greeting cards printed in-studio here in Petaluma, cozy Godzilla designs (maybe again for Coop Rage in March?)... Maybe I'll make another weird comic about a brewery, who knows.

My visual influences include classic and contemporary anime/manga (Bubblegum Crisis, Fujiko Mine, Megazone 23, Blue Period, Land of the Lustrous); artists including Alphonse Mucha, Bill Watterson, Hilma af Klint, Kay Nielsen, Edward Gorey, Eyvind Earle, and Mary Blair; Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints; the design languages of kawaii and Art Nouveau generally; and the sights and sounds of home here in northern California.

About the Artist + Studio

Kei Weaver (they/them) is a trans-femme nonbinary artist based in Petaluma, California.

Their primary materials are watercolor paints (often with mica mixed in) and ink pens (most especially Japanese brush pens and multiliners). Kei’s fine-art practice focuses on the California poppy, while the larger Studio Kei brand produces Sonoma County-minded lifestyle and decor products, including archival giclée prints produced in-studio in Petaluma, occasional glassware releases, greeting cards, and ghost cat stickers.

Kei earned their B.S. in physics from Carnegie Mellon University, M.S. in physics from Cornell University (thesis advisor: Dr. Richard Galik), and MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland - College Park (thesis advisor: Maud Casey). Summer research programs (at MIT in Boston and CERN in Geneva, Switzerland) and the playful visual language of particle physics underpin much of the Studio Kei design principles.

Under their given name “Ken”, Kei was a leading U.S. beer writer for about a decade. They published The Northern California Craft Beer Guide with their wife Ali Schmidt through local Petaluma publisher Cameron + Company. Kei worked as beer editor at All About Beer Magazine, was a 5-time judge at the Great American Beer Festival, and is a co-founder of the Petaluma River Craft Beer Festival.