Hello! My name’s Persephone van der Waard, and welcome to my website! Above on the slideshow are some of my favorite older pieces (circa 2020-2024). As of 2025, I’m the author of the multi-volume, non-profit book series, Sex Positivity (2023)—its art director, sole invigilator, illustrator and primary editor (the other co-writer/co-editor being my partner, Bay Ryan). I have my independent PhD in Gothic poetics and ludo-Gothic BDSM (focusing on partially on Metroidvania), and am a MtF trans woman, anti-fascist, atheist/Satanist, poly/pan kinkster, erotic artist/pornographer and anarcho-Communist. In terms of this website, I used to focus on videogame fan art (e.g., Metroid, Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda); now I focus on sex positivity in the Gothic mode through my book series, its full title being Sex Positivity versus Sex Coercion, or Gothic Communism: Liberating Sex Workers under Capitalism through Iconoclastic Art.

My books are non-profit and digital. To download the PDF files, simply go to my website’s 1-page promo and access them for free! While you’re there, you can also learn about the other yet-unreleased volumes/modules, project history, logo design/promo posters, the models/muses, and more! You can also read the individual book volumes in a single blog-style serial format through their individual promotions (one per book volume).

Support my work! Sex Positivity is non-profit/entirely funded through donations and commissions; i.e., I am unemployed, and any money I raise goes towards helping the people I work with (see: “Acknowledgements” for everyone involved in the project). You can donate directly through

—my PayPal, but also Ko-Fi, Patreon and CashApp

—written and illustrated commissions

as well as through any of the donation links attached to the individual model promotions; i.e., those found on the Sex Work page specifically or on the individual webpages built for my muses; e.g., Nyx’ page and the various details it contains: an Aegis for where power is found, stored and expressed!

(artist: Nyx)

For more information about this website’s early history and 2020 inception, please refer to this old blog post.