I'm M Weflen (they/she), an Appalachian-born artist, storyteller, and art therapist based in Chicago. With two decades self-publishing independent, autobiographical comics and zines, I know firsthand how image-making reaches what words can't.

I’m an artist first. My wordless graphic novel, Wolf Girl, tells the folkloric tale of a headstrong child who runs away from home and is taken in by a mothering wolf. Intricately-detailed scenes illustrate my story of complex trauma stress responses (fight - flight - freeze - fawn) and explores conflicts related to family dynamics, spirituality, and gender identity.

My lived experience of healing through art led me to become an art therapist (ATR-P) and counselor (LPC). I specialize in complex, religious, and sexual trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, grief, gender identity, and chronic pain. I'm completing training in Instinctual Trauma Response (ITR), a trauma-focused art therapy using sequential graphic images and personal narrative that I believe is ideally suited for story-minded cartoonists and writers.

Some of my favorite things are naps, tomatoes, smoothies, vampire movies, and woodland creatures. My partner of 18+ years and I haunt Chicago’s festivals, goth dance clubs, and lakefront beaches. I’m a proud cat parent of my orange boy, Orion. If I were a cat, my feline 5 indicators would be: introverted, dominant, cautious, kind, and anxious.

marianaweflen@gmail.com