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2025 Featured Artist

ByMarnee Chua

Meet Sejuti Bala

Each year, Clarion West works with a new artist to create an image that is used across the Write-a-thon, on our website, and for the Summer of Science Fiction & Fantasy reading series poster. The poster illustration is custom designed by the artist with their personal interpretation of speculative fiction.

In 2025, we are pleased to feature the work of Sejuti Bala, an award-winning artist whose accolades include the 2023 Illustration of the Year from the Speculative Literature Foundation and the 2023 First Place Winner for Solarpunk Magazine. Sejuti is a concept artist specializing in sci-fi / fantasy character design & illustrations for TTRPG projects and publications. 

Here’s the beautiful 2025 illustration that Sejuti designed! 

Illustration featuring a large city at night with tall buildings and their windows lit with bright lights, a river of whales floating through the sky, tree fruits hanging from above, and the image of an omnipresent face peeking through the center of the buildings. 

We asked Sejuti a couple of questions: 

What interested you about working with Clarion West? 

As a lifelong lover of science-fiction, fantasy and horror, I have always found myself drawn to fiction that is strange, evocative and inquisitive. I believe we all have the power of imagination, and by implementing our imagination skillfully, we have the capability to create something that is truly impactful! Having worked as a concept artist and illustrator in several video games and TTRPG books, the focus of storytelling in art is very important to me as well, as is the ability to grab people’s attention and evoke emotions that resonate strongly, and make us feel connected.

Tell us a little about yourself and your style of art. 

I am very interested in making art that explores the incurable condition of human curiosity, be it the lofty height of the far-flung stars or the unfathomable depths of our own emotions — and I love to do so with vibrant colors. 

As an artist who has significant experience painting posters digitally, my style is semi-painterly and I have a soft corner for characters captured in a snapshot of a moment, be it joy, love, wonder or despair. I am always trying to make art that is thoughtful, kind and bursting with energy, and I love using bold colors and expressions to get me there.  

In a year where we all need hopeful futures and more beautiful art to inspire us, we are thrilled to highlight Sejuti Bala’s work for our 2025 Featured Art.

You can find Sejuti’s work on Art Station: https://fiovske.artstation.com

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