Rebecca Guay

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Rebecca Guay is an artist specializing in watercolor painting and illustration. She is mostly known for her work commissioned by Magic: The Gathering, White Wolf, and DC Vertigo comics, though she has also done work for World of Warcraft TCG, the out of print Middle Earth CCG and in Wizards of the Coast games other than Magic: The Gathering (including the role playing game book series Dungeons & Dragons.). She received a degree in Illustration from the Pratt Institute in New York City in 1992 and resides in Amherst, Massachusetts with her husband and daughter.

Rebecca Guay has been involved with paintings for Magic: The Gathering since its maturity in the mid to late 1990s, and has been commissioned for anywhere from 3 to 12 cards per release since Alliances (1996).

She remains a fan favorite despite the recent decline in commissioned works by Wizards of the Coast for Magic: The Gathering. Her unique style sets her apart from other artists in this typically "male and macho" field of fantasy illustration.

[edit] Controversy

“Persecute Artist”
art by Rebecca Guay

During the preproduction for Onslaught (2002), she was informed that the 7 works she created for the set would be her last. In her own words: "the new art director, Jeremy Cranford, thinks my work is too feminine for the vision he has for the game.^[1]"

Amid fan outrage, Wizards of the Coast re-hired Guay, and commissioned her art for 7 sets since then. One of the commissioned works, a tribute to her firing, appeared in the joke set Unhinged : "Persecute Artist" (1BB Sorcery - Choose an artist other than Rebecca Guay. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all nonland cards by the chosen artist. The torches and pitchforks were no match for Rebecca's fans.) A card satirizing Jeremy Cranford also appears in Unhinged : "Fascist Art Director" (1WW Creature — Human Horror - 2/2 WW: Fascist Art Director gains protection from the artist of your choice until end of turn. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Cranford, After careful analysis of Jeremy's vocational testing, I feel that he is best suited for a career in either torture or art direction.)