About CV&L

Carnations, Violets & Lavender was created to promote the work of artists, especially early career artists, within the LGBTQ+ community.
We aim to remove the barriers artists often face when trying to get published, such as money, knowledge of the publishing industry and access to formal institutions. 

As a result, all of our open calls are free to enter, we share our featured artists work online for free and we try our best to keep production costs low to make artists work as accessible as possible, because art is for everyone.

CV&L is still in it’s early stages, with Issue #01 just behind us, but we hope to expand going forward and help as many queer artists get their work out there, and have as many people involved in the arts as possible.

Our Mission

Primarily, we exist to help LGBTQ+ artists promote and share their work. We strongly believe artwork should be accessible for both the artist and the viewer, art should be for everyone.
Our aim is to build a community of queer artists, and queer and ally readers, where we can raise each other up, help amplify our voices both individually and as a community, and make the world a more accepting and positive place.

We know that it is a difficult time for many queer people, and artwork holds real power when it comes to inciting change. By helping artists get their work “out there” we hope to raise their platform a bit, to give them a wider audience to share their art, their passion and anything else they have to say. You never know who might be the next Keith Haring, Sunil Gupta or Frida Kahlo.

What’s with the flowers?

Green carnations were popularised by Oscar Wilde as a symbol for gay and bisexual men in Victorian England.

Violets have long been associated with the poet Sappho, who often expressed attraction and love for women in her poetry. The word Lesbian comes from Sappho's home, Lesbos in Greece.

Lavender has an arguably more complex history. In 1920’s Berlin “The Lavender Song” was a powerful anthem of pride throughout the cities lesbian and transgender social clubs. By the 40’s it had fallen into use in newspaper headlines and common slang, not often in a favourable way. Despite this, members of the LGBTQ+ community have reclaimed it in a multitude of ways, from the name of the Lavender Brotherhood and Lavender Panthers, to the Lesbian Avengers handing out lavender balloons, to the Purple Column of protestors who marched under a purple banner post-Stonewall. 


These flowers have been powerful symbols throughout queer history, and still are today. We hope to follow in the footsteps of the LGBTQ+ people, and artists, who have come before us and celebrate who we and what we can do with pride.

Where to Buy

CV&L is published and sold by Delos Publishing. 
To learn more about Delos Publishing, click here
To purchase, use the shop tab in the navigation bar above