Dean Amethyst is a multi-disciplinary artist, a community-supported divinator, and a professional counselor.

I am a white settler of European descent, which for me means that I experience significant racial privilege that allows my more marginalized identities to exist less scrutinized than they would be for folks of color. I believe that this privilege comes with significant responsibilities that grow as my skills and capacity grow and change over time. At this time, I understand some of these responsibilities to be:

• To understand that nothing I personally can do will “fix” the harm that my colonizing ancestors did, yet I can seek and be available for moments of repair in my spheres of influence
• To learn from, compensate well, and actively credit and uplift the words, art, wisdom, and guidance of women and gender expansive people of color and Indigenous people
• To find and dismantle the internalized characteristics of white supremacy I find within myself and to consider sharing feedback with my white peers when I notice these characteristics present within them
• To use my power in subversive ways to question dominant power structures

Along with this privilege, I am also a trans and non-binary person, a queer person, an Autistic person, a disabled person, and a survivor. My experiences finding a home in the LGBTQ+ community, being able to describe my support needs and seeking support for them to be met, undergoing years of trauma therapy, and other experiences do also contribute to my worldview. My trans and non-binary chosen family and partners have supported me through challenging and wonderful experiences. I have felt so grateful to begin connecting to disabled community and learning about Disability Justice from folks with lived experience, particularly Black and Brown Autistic folks and neurodivergent people more broadly.

In the practice of my work as an artist, a tarot reader, and a counselor, I am not intending to portray myself as an expert. I am actively learning and practicing my skills. This means that your feedback is important to me if you feel comfortable sharing it. I am not intended to portray myself as an “expert”, instead I am actively learning and growing through experience and mentorship. I would like to be a good steward of the education and knowledge I have had the privilege to be able to access, which includes teachers, mentors, supervisors, students, clients, partners, friends, animals, plants, and bodies of water who have all taught me so much and molded me into the person I am today. In particular, adrienne maree brown’s pleasure activism has been a truly transformative aspect of my development. may her influences shine through in my work yet ultimately be credited back to her and to the Black and Indigenous folks I have had the honor to learn with and from. 

I have been highlighted in the Wally Duomo student gallery, the Sound Mind/Sound Body disability empowerment show, an interactive community art event at Patchwork Tattoo Collective, and in the Queer with Disabilities zine. I have facilitated tarot experiences at the Scorpio Market and at the Big Gay Market and facilitated creative workshops at Textile Arts Center of Madison. 

Some of my influences include adrienne maree brown, Ursula K. LeGuin, and other Black radical feminists; Autistic and ADHD adults and community; and queer and trans community and chosen family. I aim to contribute to a creative body of work building toward collective liberation, create community spaces to support folks, and alchemize grief, trauma, and pain in the pursuit of pleasure, connection, and collective liberation. I am currently based in Madison, WI and work as an artist, teacher, and a professional counselor.