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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath

@azurelionprod.bsky.social

1.1K followers 540 following 4.8K posts

scifi, fantasy, & horror artist, illustrator, & poet multi-genre print-on-demand artist, designer, & photographer My PoD shops: https://tee.pub/lic/sp_YC96pfhI https://www.redbubble.com/people/RHFay/shop?asc=u https://www.zazzle.com/store/richardfay

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · May 1

AzureLionProductions TeePublic Store
tee.pub/lic/sp_YC96p...
Azure Lion Productions Redbubble Shop
redbubble.com/people/RHFay...
Azure Lion Productions Zazzle Store
zazzle.com/store/richar...
AZP_Photos
zazzle.com/store/azp_ph...
Weird Richard's Halloween and Horror
zazzle.com/store/rhfayh...

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 7h

Sold 10/8/2025 through TeePublic:
1 x Kids of Stegosaurus,
1 x Sticker of Stegosaurus.
Thanks, buyer! Much appreciated!

Check out this awesome 'Stegosaurus' design on @TeePublic! tee.pub/lic/XFWpoQFR...

#teepublic #dinosaur #stegosaurus

Stegosaurus by azurelionproductions

This original illustration by Richard H. Fay features a Stegosaurus, a plated dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic. The plates on its back, whose function remains a matter of ...

tee.pub

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 7h

Over at TeePublic...

Up to 35% off sitewide! $16 tees and more.
(For a limited time.)

Check out my designs at TeePublic! tee.pub/lic/sp_YC96p...

#teepublic

Up to 35% off sitewide!
$16 tees and more.
AzureLionProductions TeePublic Storefront
https://www.teepublic.com/user/azurelionproductions

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 9h

Art vs Artist

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 10h

I doubt we'll ever see such a thing in the USA. Too many fellow Americans would say it smacks too much of "socialism", which they erroneously equate with Communism.

Sigh. I've always thought a TRULY civilized society should treasure its artists as contributors to culture.

♬ $UZI ΛNΛLØGUΣ ©
@suziAnalog
FYI: Ireland just approved Basic Income for Artists which provides a weekly payment of €325 (approximately €1,388 per month) to eligible artists and creative workers.

Better treatment for artists IS possible.
6:15 PM · Oct 7, 2025
·
121.2K
Views

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 11h

Facts no longer have much meaning in our society. Thanks to the rampant spread of misinformation and so called "alternate facts", we now find ourselves living in a Post-Fact World.
The Age of Information has transmogrified into the Age of Misinformation.

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 11h

Doubt it'd do any good.
Facts no longer have much meaning in our society. Thanks to the rampant spread of misinformation and so called "alternate facts", we now find ourselves living in a Post-Fact World.
The Age of Information has transmogrified into the Age of Misinformation.

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 11h

It won't play for me.

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 11h

Yes, racism and white supremacy ideology has played a role.
I also believe misogyny has played a role, both in 2016 AND in 2024.

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 11h

Sadly, I've also become convinced that these right-wing folks were eager to stop believing in American democracy after a majority of American voters (including myself) elected a black man named Barack Hussein Obama as president.
It sent them over the edge.
Trump is their revenge on the rest of us.

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 11h

I know that. You know that. Sadly, the misinformation spread by the far right propaganda machine and Russian operatives persuaded a number of self-avowed Conservatives and Republicans that a constitutional republic IS NOT a democracy.
It opened the door for authoritarianism.

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 11h

Yet another point of contention with some of my fellow Americans has been the definitions of Communism and Socialism and whether or not they are the same thing (they ARE NOT).

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 11h

I also spent an awful lot of time arguing with some of my fellow Americans over whether or not our constitutional republic is (or was) a democracy (it IS, or at least WAS, a representative democracy) and whether or not slavery was a main cause of the Civil War (it WAS — period materials PROVE it).

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 11h

Regarding the AI-bro- envisioned AI-produced Utopia...

You'd have to have a serious shift in society-wide attitudes and world views before western capitalistic nations adopt full-blown egalitarianism.

Considering it's tech oligarchs calling the shots, I doubt egalitarianism is even the plan.

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 12h

I think they're mistaking thinking outside of the box and/or imaginative thinking for hallucinating.
It's a false equivalence.

Chubby♨️
@kimmonismus
·
7h
Hallucinations are not just a “problem” that needs to be overcome, but can also be understood as a creative approach to enabling new ideas and problem solving; just as academics also “hallucinate.” Very exciting video from @EpochAIResearch
(as always).

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 12h

As much as I like to think my creative works of some value, the cure for cancer WILL NOT be found in either my visual art (at least some of which I know have been scraped by and used to train AI) or my literary works (some of which may have been scraped by and used to train AI).

D. HuskyTron
@DHuskytron
·
38m
The cure for cancer will NOT be found in:

Lord of the rings
Paw Patrol
Crash Bandicoot fanfiction
Spongebob
Video game streams
Family vacation photo galleries
SuperSonicNumberUnoFan600's online art gallery
That homemade RoboCop remake
Any STP album

Hope this helps.

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 12h

Bonus poem number 3 for day 8 of "31 Days of Spooky/Dark/Horror Poetry" — my horrorku "parting black curtains", which originally appeared in The Monsters Next Door, Issue Four, September 2008.

Photo by yours truly. I changed our beige curtains to red using GIMP.

parting red curtains
black talons amidst moonbeams
fledgling beast back home

Originally published in The Monsters Next Door, Issue Four, September 2008.

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 12h

Spending time on the internet made me realize just how uneducated and uninformed many of my fellow Americans are regarding their own national history and civics.

I kind of knew we had a problem when I found myself arguing with those who claimed Nazis were left-wing, not right.

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 12h

He pretty much did without coming out and actually saying "storm the Capitol!"

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 12h

Bonus poem number 2 for day 8 of "31 Days of Spooky/Dark/Horror Poetry".
Saw a post describing Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" as a haunting poem about the sea, which got me thinking about my own spooky poem having to do with the sea — "The Haunted Isle".

The Haunted Isle

By Richard H. Fay

I lie beyond the narrow sandy strand,
A jagged mote upon the horizon,
A rugged speck upon the ocean.
Sailors skirt past my flanks in morbid dread.
My dark hollows house the unshriven dead.

I lie amongst the angry, swelling waves.
Churning foam obscures my treacherous shoals,
Doom for innumerable imperilled souls.
Wretched spirits weep on my savage shore,
Unheard above Poseidon's constant roar.

I lie shrouded in a bleak, swirling mist,
Cloaked in an eternal obscurity,
Wracked by a turbulent, restless sea.
Haggard spectres drift amidst my grey stones,
Vainly searching for their sun-bleached bones

I lie beyond a mortal's tenuous ken,
A dismal harbour for woeful secrets,
A forlorn abode of abject regrets.
Rendered barren by the sea's bitter breath,
My rocky bosom knows nothing but death.

Originally published Spring 2008 in Issue 8 of the print speculative poetry zine Illumen.

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 13h

Bonus poem number 1 for day 8 of "31 Days of Spooky/Dark/Horror Poetry", in which I'm sharing at least 1 of my spooky/dark/horror poems a day.
I figured, after posting "The Hungering Host", I'd post "The Dark Host", the poem that was originally meant to go with the illustration.

The Dark Host

by Richard H. Fay

Creatures of darkness roam this troubled night,
Drifting on the wind like an ebon mist.
Strange beings of shadow who shun the light
Gather in the hills for their savage tryst.

Whirring wings beat in the deepening gloom
As wicked sprites cavort atop the tor.
Wayward mortals face a terrible doom,
Joining the heinous host that they abhor.

Stolen children and lost souls swell the ranks
Of that wretchedly detestable horde.
A tithe of human flesh gives bloody thanks
To their dark and diabolical lord.

The unsanctified dead spread suffering
Until dawn's first glimmer drives them away.
No earthly force can stop their wandering;
The host is vanquished by the break of day.

(Originally published in Bewildering Stories, Issue 277, February 10, 2008.)

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 13h

Until now, I could never see myself living under a dictatorship, but here we are.

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 13h

King or dictator.

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Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 13h

Day 8 of "31 Days of Spooky/Dark/Horror Poetry", in which I'm sharing at least 1 of my spooky/dark/horror poems a day.
Today's dark poem: "The Hungering Host".
This is a poem I penned to go with an artwork that actually went with another poem. Confusing, I know.
#poem #poetry

The Hungering Host

by Richard H. Fay

As the waning crimson sun sets
Over this cold and tortured land,
Reddening sky signals the rise
Of winged devils craving warm blood.
Fiery-eyed shadows venture forth
From darksome clefts and lightless caves
To gather in a swirling cloud
And whirl around a craggy tor
Ere descending upon the vale
Where their harried mortal prey dwell.

Trembling souls quiver in their beds
While ebon wings beat overhead.
Terrified rustics pray to gods
Indifferent to the dire plight
Of their tormented devotees.
Ravening fiends tear through the roof
Of a herdsman’s turf-covered cot
To rip a rosy-cheeked young lass
From her mother’s protective grasp
And drain the wailing youngster dry.

Hovel to hovel the host soars,
Spreading death like a pestilence.
The ravaging horde slakes its thirst
While kin of the slain curse the night
And weep for those taken to feed
That black legion’s hunger for blood.
Glutted shades then depart the vale
And return to their sunless holes
As the crimson dawn breaks once more
Over this wracked and weary land.

(Originally published September 2013 in Issue 2 of Disturbed Digest)

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 13h

Continuing with the Scottish theme...
Thistle Stainless Steel Water Bottle.
www.zazzle.com/thistle_stai... via @zazzle
#thistle #waterbottle

Richard H Fay - Artist/Illustrator/Poet/Polymath @azurelionprod.bsky.social · 13h

Scotland the Brave!
Here's an item in my Azure Lion Productions Zazzle Store featuring one of my favorite historical figures:
Robert the Bruce Scotland the Brave Greeting Card.
www.zazzle.com/robert_the_b... via @zazzle
#scotland #scottish #scotlandthebrave #robertthebruce #thebruce

Robert the Bruce Scotland the Brave Greeting Card