About the artist

Hello world! 

Welcome to the orbit of arkansawblk, the mystical creative, the curator of healing havens, and the facilitator of decolonized self, community, and land care. 

arkansawblk's mixed media artist journey began in 2017 where she taught herself how to draw, paint, and create mixed media collages. Her artwork combines elements of the African diasporic culture, ancestry, spirituality, religion, magical realism, & the tradition of freedom fighting, centering Black and Melanated people's stories through their paintings and writing.

After a year of practicing her craft, arkansawblk was selected to exhibit four original pieces in the Black Women in Power Exhibit at the Baltimore Arena Players (the oldest operating African American community theatre in the U.S.) Between 2018-2020, she featured a rotating collection of mixed media collages at the New Secret's Tea Shop in Baltimore, MD. 

Due to the pandemic, arkansawblk decided to return home to Little Rock, AR to be closer to her family and reconnect with her homeland. In 2021, she was selected to feature an original piece titled "Power Pose" in The Art of Resistance Exhibit at Hearne Fine Art Gallery. She also has created countless custom pieces for customers nationally and internationally.

With being a creative comes many successes as well as failures, and it's part of arkansawblk's journey to be authentic through it all. She hopes that by sharing her story she is able to help the next person lean into their creative expression fully. 

In addition to creating mixed media art, arkansawblk enjoys studying plant medicine, reading about Pan-African diasporic culture, growing flowers and herbs, exploring womanist perspectives, unlearning harmful colonized ways of existing, and creating fun, uplifting experiences for Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color aka QTBIPOC. She facilitates workshops and gatherings, centering restoration, nature, and community. The foundational value is that through self and community care we can quilt a more inclusive world that mutually benefits people and the natural environment.