Keith Birdsong (American, 1959-2019)

A self-taught artist, Oklahoma native Keith Birdsong became the primary Star Trek artist for licensed products and books for over a decade. He has painted covers for Star Trek novels, the Shadowrun RPG (a cyberpunk themed role playing game), and Young Reader books for Scholastic Books and other publishers. His work has appeared in films, on collectible plates, and even U.S. postage stamps. He transformed the collectible plate industry while employed by The Hamilton Collection, where he pioneered the idea for a hexagonal plate that fit with other plates to form a larger image.