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I am Hayveyah McGowan a painter and designer from St.Louis, Missouri.

Creating has always been a passion of mine. From a young age, I knew that I wanted the act of making beautiful things to be apart of my life.

I currently find myself at the intersection of fine art and design. I cultivate my own brand and ideas within my studio work and also act as a creative channel for others as a designer.

I believe my duty as a designer is to hone the ideas of my clients and bring them to life in a way that is both engaging and functional. How can I get the audience to engage with this content and understand it in a deeper and more meaningful way?

This questioning also permeates through my studio practice.

Within my personal works I visualize the themes of identity. Specifically, self portraits of the female form, which speak to my own existence as a black woman.

This work began as a releasing of my own anxieties and seeking to regain ownership of my autonomy. Through a mixed media approach of painting, design and photography, I create images that show the beauty and radiance within the pressures and weights of black womanhood.

Along with expressing my physical embodiment, the works within my studio practice honor the legacies of my grandmothers. Adrienne Maree Brown, author of Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good, states, “There is no way to repress pleasure and expect liberation, satisfaction, or joy.” Through this work, I examine parts of myself that older generations could not fully embrace, specifically experiencing liberatory pleasure amidst systemic oppression; this work is a radical act of healing.

Photo By: Bobby Best