Jey Parks

"It makes me so emotional to see little girls dressed as Rey or Rose Tico, as I really wish I had those kinds of female heroes growing up, and I'm so glad that kids do now. So to me, Star Wars has come to mean inclusiveness and hope for a better future."

―Jey Parks, on the subject of women in the Star Wars galaxy^[4]

Jey Parks is an American artist who is best known for painting cats as pop culture characters. They illustrated the Ewok Princess Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka for the 2018 reference book Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy, written by Amy Ratcliffe. The artwork was later reprinted in its 2025 updated edition.

Biography

"I admittedly didn't know anything about Princess Kneesaa when I started, except that she was an Ewok, and as someone who draws mostly cute and fuzzy animals (okay, usually cats), she seemed right up my alley."

―Jey Parks, on illustrating Princess Kneesaa^[4]

Jey Parks is an American^[2] artist who contributed to Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy, a 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^[3] Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka,^[5] Parks illustrated the character attacking four Imperial stormtroopers with a knife.^[3] The book was published on October 30, 2018,^[6] though the artist's involvement was announced beforehand via a StarWars.com article on May 30 of the same year.^[7]

Parks is a self-described latecomer to the Star Wars fandom who became invested through the sequel trilogy.^[4] Known primarily for^[3] their^[1] paintings of cats as pop culture characters,^[3] they were unfamiliar with Kneesaa prior to the project, but they saw the Ewok as within their body of work and researched further. Parks felt that Kneesaa was more than just cute and fuzzy, indicating that they thought the princess was wise and capable of action. Regarding their depiction, the artist expressed that they wanted to show Kneesaa as a fierce and clever Ewok to be reckoned with,^[4] which ultimately culminated in an art piece featuring the character fighting Imperials.^[3]

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.^[2] Parks' Kneesaa illustration was later reprinted in Women of the Galaxy's updated edition, the 2025 reference book Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy: Updated and Expanded, again authored by Ratcliffe.^[8]

Works

Bibliography

Year	Title	Contribution	Notes
2018	Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy	Illustration	Depiction of Princess Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka attacking stormtroopers^[3]
2025	Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy: Updated and Expanded	Illustration	Depiction of Kneesaa a Jari Kintaka^[8]