Jey Parks is an American artist who is best known for painting cats as pop culture characters. They illustrated the Ewok Princess Kneesaa for the 2018 reference book Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy, written by Amy Ratcliffe.
Jey Parks is an American artist who contributed to Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy, a 2018 reference book that was written by Amy Ratcliffe and highlights female characters in the Star Wars universe with artwork by female and non-binary artists. For the page spread on the Ewok Princess Kneesaa, Parks illustrated the character attacking four Imperial stormtroopers with a knife.
Parks is a self-described latecomer to the Star Wars fandom who became invested through the sequel trilogy. Known primarily for their paintings of cats as pop culture characters, Parks was unfamiliar with Kneesaa prior to the project, but they saw the Ewok as within their body of work and researched further. They told StarWars.com that Kneesaa was "more than just cute and fuzzy," being both wise and capable of action, and said, "I wanted to show her being fierce but clever—an Ewok to be reckoned with!"
In July 2020, Parks stopped their art career to receive treatment for stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma. The GoFundMe fundraiser for their medical costs included an appeal to fans of their professional artwork and unofficial fan art for Star Wars and other media properties. Parks announced on January 5, 2021 that they had ended 2020 with their cancer in remission.
Jey Parks is an American artist who contributed to Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy, a 2018 reference book that was written by Amy Ratcliffe and highlights female characters in the Star Wars universe with artwork by female and non-binary artists. For the page spread on the Ewok Princess Kneesaa, Parks illustrated the character attacking four Imperial stormtroopers with a knife.
Kneesaa illustration by Jey Parks
Parks is a self-described latecomer to the Star Wars fandom who became invested through the sequel trilogy. Known primarily for their paintings of cats as pop culture characters, Parks was unfamiliar with Kneesaa prior to the project, but they saw the Ewok as within their body of work and researched further. They told StarWars.com that Kneesaa was "more than just cute and fuzzy," being both wise and capable of action, and said, "I wanted to show her being fierce but clever—an Ewok to be reckoned with!"
In July 2020, Parks stopped their art career to receive treatment for stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma. The GoFundMe fundraiser for their medical costs included an appeal to fans of their professional artwork and unofficial fan art for Star Wars and other media properties. Parks announced on January 5, 2021 that they had ended 2020 with their cancer in remission.
- Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy