A linocut print of a stylized winged skull, a puritan's death head, above the name of the artist: Eric Clift-Thompson.
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Eric Clift-Thompson (He/They) is a transgender Ohio artist and educator who uses macabre prose, printmaking, illustration, collage, and zines to connect a horror niche of LGBTQ and disabled communities. His work has been featured in places such as Sean-Christopher Gallery, ROY G BIV Gallery, the cover of Botticelli Magazine, and the private collection of politician Morgan Harper. Eric’s dedication to accessibility and representation was recognized by Shawnee State University where he received the 2019 Lavender Graduation Campus Advocate Award the year he graduated magna cum laude with his Visual Communications BFA. He earned his MFA in Visual Arts at Columbus College of Art & Design where he also graduated magna cum laude. In his current position as an adjunct professor at the Columbus College of Art & Design, Eric has received multiple nominations for the Teaching Excellence Award.

Eric finds inspiration in folklore, historical imagery, alternative subcultures, and music— particularly the sounds and culture of early European music.


For CV, business inquiries, commissions, and other opportunities, reach out via email (etvtart@gmail.com).



Eric will not participate in projects utilizing, promoting, nor training generative AI and LLMs, and his works cannot be used for these purposes.

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A parade of animals- a hog ringing a bell, a dog carrying a flag, a slender cat with a hurdy gurdy, a short straiped cat with a drum, and big fat calico cat blowing a horn- in a medieval style.
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Section Title: Prints

Title: Spoiled. 4 by 6 linocut print. Description: A portrait of a person in an antique European corseted dress and pearls. Their curly updo is falling in messy strands. They look at the viewer with blank white eyes as a substance runs from around their eyes and onto their cheeks.

Spoiled
2023
4x6 Linocut Print

Title: Revival, 4x6 Linocut Print. Description: A figure with big "bat cave goth" style hair reclines in a coffin with their hands crossed over their chest. They are dressed in a gown that is falling off one shoulder. They look up, smiling, as something leaks from the corner of their mouth

Revival
2022
4x6 Linocut Print

Title: Description: Into the Garden, Series of 3 4x6 Linocut Prints. Description: A nude curvy figure sits with a hand clutched to their chest. Long hair covers their eyes and the moon creates a halo around their head. A hole is where the left breast should be and flower. Each print progressively looks more melted.

Into the Garden
2021
Three 4x6 Linocut Prints

Title: La Dame, 4x6 Linocut Print. Description: A bust of a woman in an old dress staring blankly at the viewer. She wears a tall, lopsided and unraveling powdered wig with ribbons.

La Dame
2021
4x6 Linocut Print

Title: Belated, 4x6 Linocut Print. Description: A vase of daisies sits on a table, surrounded by drapery. An apple core sits next to the vase.

Belated
2021
4x6 Linocut Print

Title: One, 9x12, Linocut Print and Ink. Description: Two skeletons embrace in a coffin, their bones mixing together. Worms, beetles, and maggots create a border around them. A banner at the top reads "We Will Be One Again".

One
2021
9x12 Linocut Print and Ink

Title: The Confrontation of Lucretia. Harsh black shadows illuminate a robed woman, framed by columns, looking down at the audience as she stabs a small knife into her chest.

The Confrontation of Lucretia
2025
4x6 Linocut Print and Digital Color

Title: Rat Pack: Raised by Bats, 2 inch Linocut Print. Description: A two-tailed rat with small bat wings swoops downward

Rat Pack: Raised by Bats
2023
2x2 Linocut Print

Title: Rat Pack: When the Circus Came to Town, 2 inch Linocut Print. Description: A rat dressed as a clown with a ruffled collar, pom pom buttons, a big nose, and a little hat, juggles three sunflower seeds

Rat Pack: When the Circus Came to Town
2023
2x2 Linocut Print

Title: Return to the Lake, Series of 2 4x6 Linocut Prints. Description: A person lays back in water, looking up as their hair floats around them. A second version of the print is shown, slightly smeared in a disorienting circular motion.

Return to the Lake
2021
Two 4x6 Linocut Prints

Title: Rat Pack: The Folly of Love, 2 inch Linocut Print. Description: Two peaceful rats face each other, pointing downward, as their tails form a heart

Rat Pack: The Folly of Love
2023
2x2 Linocut Print

Title: Rat Pack: Innocent, 2 inch Linocut Print. Description: A sleeping rat in a nightcap rests its head on a pillow, cuddling a small teddy bear

Rat Pack: Innocent
2023
2x2 Linocut Print

Title: Rat Pack: Feathery Wings, 2 inch Linocut Print. Description: A rat with a halo and angel wings floats with a content smile

Rat Pack: Feathery Wings
2023
2x2 Linocut Print

Title: Alive, 8x10, Basketball and Cardboard Print. Description: Frankenstein's monster stitches a breast onto its own flat chest.

Alive
2021
8x10 Basketball and Cardboard Print

Section Title: Illustration
A digital painting of my black cat sticking her tongue out as she looks up at me. She is in front of a blue and purple graphic, gestural background with two little white hearts.

Lilith
2026
Digital Illustration

Title: She Who Works Her Will. Digital Illustration. Description: In a style inspired by illuminated manuscripts, the shrouded figure of Hekate stands in front of stone arches, a golden halo behind her. She is flanked by two torches, two snakes, some mandrake plant figures, and two slender dogs. She holds a puppy in one arm and a ring of keys in her free hand.

She Who Works Her Will
2023
Digital Illustration

Title: Love and War Series, Untitled. Two knight helms rest against each other on a chunk of grassy land. A long, tattered piece of fabric is affixed to a sword piercing the ground behind them. The elements come together to form a vaguely phallic shape.

Love and War Series, Untitled
2025
Digital Illustration

Title: Love and War Series, Untitled. Two armored warriors, faces obscured by the shadow of their helmets, are locked in combat. One raises a blade above his head to strike his pinned opponent as the pinned man pushes against the other's chest. The men are framed by stylized trees and a discarded shield in a way that creates a heart.

Love and War Series, Untitled
2025
Digital Illustration

Title: California Dreamin'. A wordless comic. The first panel shows a 1970's muscle car parked outside an old, shack-like church. The trees are bare, and grass peeks through the snow on the ground. The cross on the church is upside down. In the second panel, smoke flows from a swinging censer. The final panel depicts a mustached man praying on his knees. A clawed hand touches his lips. Parts of the individual panels come together to form the head of a cthulhu-type creature.

California Dreamin'
2024
Digital Illustration

Title: Gallantry. A medieval-inspired painting of wrestler Drew McIntyre mimicking images of Saint George. He sits on a rearing horse in a blue robe, a gold halo behind his head, sword sheathed at his side, as he spears the head of a serpent-like dragon on the ground. A scroll in the upper right corner reads: Scottish Warrior, Slayer of Serpents, Teller of Hard Truths.

Gallantry
2025
Digital Illustration

Title: Ascension. (Fan Art: Fear and Hunger) A towering nun eerily smiles as she floats in front of a red-tinted stone arch. Clouds of bats materialize from her headdress.

Ascension
2024
Digital Illustration

Title: The New God. (Fan Art: Fear and Hunger) A figure, draped in cloth and wrapped in a snake, stands elegantly in front of a burst of radiant light. A tall, sharp crown sits among his long, flowing hair.

The New God
2024
Digital Illustration

Title: Enter. Through a green-tinted haze, a ghostly figure of a hunched woman floats at the top of a staircase, framed by curtains.

Enter
2022
Digital Illustration

Section Title: Zines
The full-wrap cover for Vampthology Book One: Cycle. Description: A lace-textured snake emerges from sprawling branches of nightshade to swallow its own tail. Text (Artist information): Eric Clift, @ETVTArt, etvt.art A waxing moon sits at the center of the dark night sky, framed sharp, bare branches of an oak tree. A few acorns hang from the branches. A vulture stares menacingly from atop a branch. Text: I Will Feed. I am all around you- The mist in your last breath, A shadow in your shelter, The vexing in your veins, And upon those weak veins I will feed. I build my castle from the bones of Your ancestors and you will become The ceiling beams of my parlour and the Pick between my teeth, but for now you Are kine in my field and without fail I will feed. Of course I lust for your despair but what I Love most is your symbolic victories, your Soothing illusions because I will mutate to Suit your fancy. I will pull up a chair. You will welcome me at your table and I will feed. Regardless of consent Or if you are aware, I will evolve as you rot To outlive your children’s children And on them I will feed. A relief of a lamb sleeps atop a tilted broken mirror. A scared person with large round glasses is reflected within the scattered shards of glass. Text: Touch. You hypnotized me with your power And gorged upon my naivety. The image of you haunts me and Ghosts of fingers linger on my flesh. My breath stays still as I turn from The mirror to check over my shoulder. I am forever changed And you go on. Reliefs of bats frame a white arch. Text: A Valediction. O Hunter I write these last words to you, And with these words my fate is sealed, The man who made my still heart beat anew. I thought my muse should hear before I yield. Description: A fanged man in fanciful attire caresses the neck of the bearded hunter, but their image unravels into wisps of smoke. Text: Each day I dream of petting your silk hair, The burning heat of coal-black eyes While tangled in an ardent love affair- A destiny designed to agonize. Descirption: The hunter grimaces, face in shadow, as the vampire’s hand reaches out to him. Text: O Pain is loving those who kill, fair man, Who rouses love with wooden stakes. Eternal death would be far better than The torment of this yearning and heartache. Description: The hunter begins to plunge a stake into the vampire. The vampire smiles with a quill in one hand and the hunter’s wrist in the other. Text: Tonight I will ensure I am saved, By dint of touch I always craved. Description: Two wooden posts emerge from the dark sea. Carved at the top are the heads of two smiling pirates who look into each other’s eyes. Knotted rope connects the posts. A pirate ship sails in the distance below a full moon. Text 1: A Sailor’s Hitch. They put me on the night crew When they found out what I am. Apparently it’s trouble To love another man. Although the wind is wailing And the sky’s a blackish-green My mate makes it the prettiest Sight I’ve ever seen. Text 2: A Blood Knot. O I’ve been on the night crew As long as there’s been sea And there’s never been a sailor Who’s quite so taken me. And although he loves me also Each dawn my heart does cry For there will surely come a night Where I must watch him die. Description: Framed by greenery and sharp branches, a woman in traditional clothes stands with a shovel and watering can. Crows watch her smile gently as the sun sets behind her head, leaving her shrouded in shadow. A humble house sits in the distance. Text: The Garden. Many things can tie a community together, but for this village in particular it was their vegetable garden. The garden, lush and fruitful, was tended to by everyone in town, but one person kept it going strong. She went into the garden each evening and lovingly cared for the plants. Description: The woman gently cups a leaf from a garlic plant. Text: Even long after the town laid to rest she remained, working hard to help each plant flourish… Description: Under a waning moon the woman is on her knees, pulling a garlic bulb from the ground. Her hand is left scarred and smoking. Text: Even the garlic. Description (The Garden, Continued): A pajama-clad person, illuminated by lantern light, recoils in horror at the sight of a bloodied rabbit in the woman’s hands. Text: But one evening she was caught with the blood of a rabbit dripping from her lips. She rushed to where her neighbors were gathered, hoping to reveal herself to them before someone else could. Surely they would not believe her to be a monster after spending these years together. With face splattered and fangs bared, the woman speaks. Dropping to her knees, she confessed: "I am a vampire!" Description: The townsfolk gasp, some whispering amongst themselves. The woman folds her hands as she desperately begs to them. Text: "But truly my labor shows you that I am not the monster you assume me to be for I have spent my nights tending to a garden that cannot feed me… "Even the garlic." Text (The Garden, Continued): Despite her pleas, the neighbors brandished the very garlic she helped grow as they chased her into her home. Description: Cowering against the door, the woman shields her face as garlic crashes through her window. Text: They set the building ablaze with her inside, leaving her to succumb to the flames. Description: Flames engulf the home as smoke fills the sky. A lone bulb of garlic rots in the grass in front of the road to the now abandoned house. Text: The townsfolk lived on and, although their garden was never as abundant, everything tasted just as good to them… Even the garlic. Description: A sewer tunnel drips with ooze. Roaches skitter up the walls. A trail of flies leads to a hunched figure, their flesh ripping and rotting. They peek from behind their bony hands. Text: Growing Pains. Something is amiss. I can feel it in my teeth. Like paper in god’s sadistic hand I crumple, balled up on the dank floor. I try to rise as Chunks of my flesh slough With a nauseating wet slap and Even the roaches scatter in fear. I did not emerge From this as a butter-Fly. I teeter as I stare at a False tetrad of vomit-coated hands. Vermilion tears navigate my Festering wounds. Is this my fate? To wallow in shit, to hide below? My tongue mops the musty blood from my Gnarled cheeks. Maybe this could be worth it. I think it could.
Description: An illustration of scissors over dotted lines overlay a faded pile of magazine scraps. The title, "I AM GROTESQUE", is in a grungy collage-like font. Description: The scraps and cutting scissors motif continues over the subsequent spreads Text: Grotesque. Gro-tesque. /ɡrōˈtesk/. Comically or repulsively ugly or distorted Description: Collaged creatures decorate the pages- a deer with wings and a rat tail, a wildcat sculpture bust on a bird body and hoofed leg, a child's head morphing into the curls of a wild sled, and others. Text: The word grotesque originates with the rediscovery of Nero's Domus Aurea in Rome. People were fascinated and horrified with the imagery that decorated the walls of the infamously indulgent palace- Hybrid Creatures composed of incongruent parts. Description: A collage depicts a person shaping a clay pot on a wheel. Within the pot is a collage depicting an exaggerated portrait of the artist with bulging eyes, spots, and an enlarged forehead. Text: I had already drawn parallels between my own body and charicatures within the modern grotesque: my nose, my chin, my lumps and bumps... But when delving deeper into the grotesque I found frequent references to trangender people. It was a poignant reminder of how the world viewed me- a horrible hybrid creature composed of incongruent parts. Description: Images of statues and old magazine illustrations are halved to create a centaur and a mermaid. Text: But I began to think about the grotesque and made a realization: the majestic gryphon, alluring mermaids, powerful centaurs, fierce gargoyles... They are all grotesque, too. Not just grotesque, but also beautiful, awe-inspiring, and completely whole just as they are. Description: The previous collage portrait of the artist on a finished vase. Strong arms emerge from the sides of the pot, one of them taken from Michelangelo's painting Creation of Adam. Text: Although the original intent of the authors cannot be changed, I know that I'm more than the sum of my supposedly incongruent parts. I am a whole, complete, and powerful creature. Description: A potted plant with a caricature head and human arms sits below a heart. Text: And you are, too. A flammability notice from a piece of furniture is collaged onto the paper scrap background. The artist's name and contact information is listed below: Eric Clift-Thompson,www.etvt.art,@ETVTArt
The full-wrap cover for Vampthology Book Two: In Memoriam. Description: A loose and gritty illustration of funeral flowers- roses, lilies, and daisies- engulf the title. Flies buzz around the flowers on the back cover. Text (Artist information): Eric Clift, @ETVTArt, etvt.art Description: Below thick clouds, ivy consumes a leaning brick wall. Dark liquid splashes from the old sewer gate behind. Text: Vernal. A man slinked out of sewer sludge to sing A song of love and loss. Not loss of love But loss of sanity. His flame was spring In fields that flowered spears of fatal glove. The charming beau had left himbound to bed Imagining the green of Paris gaze Against the argent skin like powdered lead And framed by hair like florid orange glaze. And there he hunched while hurling howls of pain, The lethal lips that caused his cruel repose Had remnants rooted within curse of Cain. He slid, breast smudged, lukewarm and heart disposed. Receding down the sewer's bowel grease, His husk deluged the ditch with melodies. Description: Roaches scatter in a confession booth. Under the inverted cross and through the screen, two nuns share the close space in ecstasy. One nun, fanged and smiling, gently tugs on the other's collar to reveal her neck. Text: Unearthly Affair. With lilac lips coated in crimson She divulged her dark desires while I felt the soft ice of undead skin. My cheeks rushed with the scorching of sin But between them stretched her sultry smile With lilac lips coated in crimson. Her hot carnal contact was akin To baptism. It drowned the revile I felt. The soft ice of undead skin Was something of fables forbidden But I will truckle to be defiled With lilac lips coated in crimson. My lungs lurched as she sank her teeth in To make me into her sapphic spile. I felt the soft ice of undead skin When I felt my new frame. I have been Born again in an unhallowed style With lilac lips. Coated in crimson, I felt the soft ice of undead skin. Description: With limbs stretched outwards, a curvy torso is pierced with arrows from all directions. Birds scatter in the sky over the empty field. Text: Cold. We watched as they bound you to the stake, bare and blue and spread like scissors. The metal bolts in your bosom paled compared to the throbbing of my unmarkled chest. Witnesses whispered of a winged beast leaving sanguine prints on a babe;s window sill. After landing it shifted into a woman shaded by a striking shawl of red and black- the same one that always swathed your sturdy shoulders. You did not speak in your defense, but I know you are not to blame for I had borrowed the shawl when I left the warmth of your bed for briak night air. Now we are both cold, Left empty without cover Just like your reed bed. Description: alt= A looping black ribbon breaks in the middle of a figure eight. Text 1: Torn Satin. Lighting curls of hair and lashes The waxy halo wanes, Your features stuck like leather ice Agaiinst the dying flame. I know that you had died tonight But still I can't be sure. Your legs look like they'd lift right now And drag you out the door. So loved one if you hear me now Please leave me not alone. Tangle your limbs around my waist And promise you'll stay home. Text 2: Sacred Shroud. I long to lend my hand, my love, To lift to your drenched lips But you would likely writhe under My lifeless fingertips. I want to believe your warm lament- I know you think it's true, But I think that my lying still Is what is best for you. I'll ve carried to western fields And leave you to dolfrums So you will never have to see The creature I've become. Description: Villagers dance and celebrate, ignoring the small old man hunched over his spiral-carved cane at the far edge of the square. His belongings are in two small sacks at his feet, and a large hill breaks the distant tree line. One man, ornamented in fine clothes, approaches him. Text: His Tools. On the edge of a bustling village, there lived a poor woodcarver. Despite his great skill and kind heart, he was snubbed by his fellow townsfolk. The woodcarver, however, thought he had stumbled upon the chance to have the life he had worked so hard to achieve, A pale man in shimmering finery had the key to a comfortable life in his polished marble hand, and he had extended an offer to the woodcarver: "Build me a home at the top of the hill, decorate it with yout wonderful carvings, and you may reside there with me for the rest of your days." With the stranger's finest tools and materials at his disposal the woodcarver labored from sunrise to sunset, lovingly crafting the house where he would spend the rest of his days... His Tools, Continued. Description: The woodcarver is slumped against a tree, his cane beside him in the grass as the silhouette of the stranger stands against the sky. Text: At the end of each day the pale man came to look upon the woodcarver's work and soon after, drained from exhaustion, the woodcarver would collapse until morning. When the last evening finally came, the woodcarver basked in his masterpiece as he wearily waited for the pale man's arrival. Finally, he could enjoy the fruits of his grueling labor. But the woodcarver would never set foot into the finished house. Description: The pale man walks away towards the house, an inset imag showing off his fangs and bloodied lips. Description: A hand reaches up into a stream of light. The beam breaks between fingers. Text: How dare the moonbeams beat upon me, Reminding me of something lost: A sun that set after a long day That I saw long enough to watch withdraw. The heavens were amber spun sugar- Whispy and sweet and quick to fade. Will I forget that warmth or will its Absence haunt the foyer of my ailed mind? Let me be where the sun is buried Even if it's cole once it sleeps Or if it is no longer comely. Its company will tune my busted heart.
Section Title: Community Projects
An image of a mural on a large barn door.In it, a robin sits on a branch surrounded by rays of light and simple white butterflies. Text reads: If I can stop one hearts from breaking, I shall not live in vain. A progress gif plays when moused over. Me, the artist, looking over my shoulder as I paint the robin mural in a candid shot. Me, the artist, standing in front of the finished robin mural. A compilation of a few painted floral fence and door accents done at the same site as the robin mural a couple of years later. A compilation of a few painted floral fence and door accents done at the same site as the robin mural a couple of years later.