Spreading loving affirmations for the queer community.
In 2023, I decided to stop sharing my art only on Instagram and in fine art spaces — and started sharing it here with all of you instead. It's been a wild and wonderful ride. Thank you for sharing these messages.
Making your support for LGBTQ+ people visible saves lives.
I'm Rae Senarighi, a nonbinary trans artist, and Transpainter is the botanical art brand I built to say the thing I needed to hear for years: you are loved, exactly as you are. Every piece — a print, a t-shirt, a sticker, a greeting card — pairs the meticulous tradition of botanical illustration with LGBTQ+ affirmations and unapologetic trans joy. I'm best known for Transcend, a series of larger-than-life trans and nonbinary portraits, and for the You Are Loved campaign, which started with a single billboard in Madison, Wisconsin, and has grown into hundreds of billboards, yard signs, and bumper stickers nationwide.
Transpainter is a very small, transgender-owned, nonbinary-owned, woman-owned business. Behind the scenes, it's me making the art, Gina running global operations, and Amber handling day-to-day fulfillment from our Madison home office — a tiny, tight-knit crew making sure every order gets to you with care.
Our work has been recognized by Netflix and GLAAD, and covered by press including San Francisco Weekly, Our Lives Magazine, and Isthmus. I've spoken about trans identity, resilience, and the inseparability of art and activism at colleges, conferences, and a TEDx stage.
But honestly, our favorite part isn't the press — it's seeing where the art actually ends up. We love spotting it on signs at Pride marches and held up at protests, loud and joyful and a little bit furious, all at once. Just as often, it shows up quietly: taped inside a locker, framed in a hallway, mailed to a parent who's still learning the right words to use. We hear from people almost every day — messages telling us a piece helped them come out, helped them stay close to an LGBTQ+ family member, or, more than once, that it helped them stay alive. We don't take a single one of those messages lightly, and we're endlessly grateful for every one you send.
Shopping for someone in particular? Our prints, tees, cards, and pins make sweet back-to-school and teacher gifts, a perfect present for the proud mom of an LGBTQ+ kid, cheerful pride decor for your home or office, and warm, affirming art for healthcare and clinic spaces where trans and queer patients deserve to feel welcomed the moment they walk in.
Every purchase here — a print for your wall, a sticker for your water bottle, a card for a friend who needs to hear they're loved — helps keep this small business running, keeps LGBTQ+ affirmations moving through the world, and makes your allyship visible. That visibility matters more than you might think: LGBTQ+ people with even one accepting person in their life are significantly less likely to experience a mental health crisis.
Thank you for being here, for choosing small, for choosing queer-owned, and for making your support for our community visible. We see you, and we're so glad you found us.
With love, Rae & the Transpainter team
