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Life & Work with Vanna Black

Today we’d like to introduce you to Vanna Black.

Hi Vanna, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
FIRST OFF – I AM A GRADY BABY, Atlanta raised me. I grew up in a small neighborhood called Trestle Tree in Ormewood Park. I attended Anne E. West Elementary where my love for art was cultivated. If you could imagine a liberal arts elementary school, this was the epitome. This school thrived on the creativity of the teachers and students. This school and neighborhood was absolutely magical in the literal and metaphorical sense, I learned about the power of shapes and color to create my own pictures and learned to play the violin here. Granted I lived in public housing, living in Ormewood didn’t feel like that…or at least not to an eight years old black girl. I loved to play outside, walk to Grant Park to swim during the summer, ride my bike to the Boys & Girls Club, and best of all, pick colorful, gorgeous wildflowers that grew in the kudzu near the trestle that supports the train tracks (still there) my friends and I used to walk sometimes. Also, I read books…a lot. My childhood was vibrant, my imagination was/is was hyper-surreal and strong, Time couldn’t compete with how I functioned in reality as a kid, and art is how I viewed the world. I didn’t know life without art then, and I can’t fathom a life without art now.

Fast forward, four years later, when life takes this odd shift in an adolescent’s life; a very vulnerable time within itself for anyone, especially becoming a young black woman who is starting to develop independent thoughts and having quarrels with her body….when I needed my mommy the most…she died. Her transition into the spirit realm left me in a state of disbelief, devastation, and depression. I felt at my most low and lost. I had loved ones of course, but there is no other love even remotely close to compare to the love of mom. During the time of my adolescents, I was a normal rebellious teen, raised by my grandma. She gave all she had to keep my brother and me together. My grandma’s love was the little hope of light that kept me going. I found ways to stay a creative artist; this was an innate calling since I was three years old. I attended art and music class religiously in middle school, as it is the most vivid time of my preteen years. In high school, although I didn’t take any art classes, I drew often as I could, but this is where Poetry found me. I could write about ALL of my feelings, the good, bad, sexual, taboo, the depression. I could also wear a different face, a mask to cover the pain.

As I got older, I continued keeping a sketchbook, nothing too serious. I didn’t see a way to make a living with my art. In 2006, I attended formally known as Georgia perimeter, now Georgia State University (GSU), where I discovered continued my love for photography after practicing my hand at a portrait studio while living in Syracuse, NY, the year prior. At this time in my early twenties, I dabbled with other cultures and religions…nothing serious (after all, who takes life seriously in their twenties? lol.) In my late 20s, I decided to go back to school and shoot my shot at graphic design. This is where I was able to stitch together all of the different mediums of art that I enjoyed so much. I was selected 20 out of 47 students to be part of the 2016 graduating cohort for graphic design at GSU. I had never wanted something this greatly in life other than my mom to be alive to see me accomplish this exact thing.

The kicker: After getting accepted into the program, I HATED college! I was an outcast, was 6-7 years older than my classmates, and could only relate to a select few. I went because I was told by loved ones who figured they knew what was best for me, and I didn’t want to disappoint them. I wanted to focus on just existing and letting what came natural to me guide me (I’m still like this – as this exact feeling pushed me to quit my job working at Accenture.) I was ready to give up, I honestly didn’t care about graduating, I even failed a course. Reluctantly, I finished what I started. This part of my life broke me and I couldn’t be more grateful for all my adversities as they have created all of who I am today.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth Road, HA! Metaphorically speaking, my road has passed through valleys that twists and turn through real-time avalanches ain’t no way around, and there haven’t been any shortcuts either! In fact, each time I ran into a block, it felt like I had to take the long way more than the times I want to count. I have encounter boulders the size of hippopotami and I don’t believe anyone has a smooth road in life. Life isn’t smooth roads! No one is exempt from adversities and failure. If you live life trying to escape your failures, as most of us have tried and ironic failed miserably, lol…then what are you living for?

My struggles as previously stated, in short my biggest is not having my mother present, I know without a doubt that I would still have a lot of my old art pieces from elementary school as she kept everything I made. My second is losing connection with my painting and drawing in my late teens/early twenties. Third, not understanding depression and filling a void with external and temporary forces. Lastly, not appreciating the time I had in my twenties, I was always moving too fast. These held me back and I ALLOWED all of it to be a distraction. Granted I didn’t know any better, I’m grateful to be learning all of this now rather than much later in life.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I feel like others can see my work better than I can see my work because I’m always in the middle of the tornado of my mind. Professionally speaking, My work is primarily floral based, using bold colors and African inspired patterns. I like to tell stories with how the flowers are composed on the canvas both acrylic and digital. I use odd perspectives, and bold, colorful patterns in organic shapes to portray the unique beauty and positivity of black people in society as well as the cultural contributions black people give to a community founded on respect for self and others, togetherness, and not just accepting but ultimately understanding each other’s differences.

How and where do you being to someone else who doesn’t think anything like you? By being open like flowers in bloom.

I am most proud of two things: One, the growth I continuously obtain and two, I just completed my first solo mural back in October 2021. It’s part of a mural tour dedicate to the Legacy of Dorothy Bolden who helped organize domestic workers. It’s located in the West End – Westview – Sylvan areas; located 1313 Sylvan Rd., across from Triton Yards Food Truck Park.

My top five strengths, according to Gallup’s Strengths Finder assessment are: 1. Input (collects resourceful info), 2. Restorative (love to problem solve), 3. Connectedness (love understanding relations between different elements, topics, and people), 4. Woo (supposedly winning people over, but I just like to make others feel good), and 5. Positivity (I am externally idealistic and internally optimistic). I love to relate to others and make friends. I don’t see myself differently. Sharing commonalities with people and being relatable is what makes me special. I can vibe out with almost anyone and making them feel special is my gift.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Happy all the time, curious, hyperactive, creative, and talked a lot. None of this has changed about me. I just gained a better sense of how to use and place these attributes. I loved anything that could keep me entertained for hours such as legos, it Lincoln logs, or K’nex, jigsaw puzzles, and board games. I loved pogo stick jumping and was amazing at it, I had stilts too! I wanted a unicycle. Seriously if I had that, I’d probably would be in the circus to day and that not a joke as I went to regularly as a kid to see the circus performers religiously as a kid. My favorite stuffed animal was my Gunther’s elephant from the Ringling Brother’s and Barnum and Bailey. That elephant made me feel like I was a big person, size wasn’t a concept I had a good grasp on (like a little Chihuahua thinking that it is a Great Dane) and it’s why I have such a big, charismatic personality today.

Pricing:

  • As a digital poster design artist and illustrator my rate is $60 hourly, minimum 4 hours of work.
  • My interior murals start at $1500 for 7 x 8ft or $27 per square foot. (vannablack.art@gmail.com) for all other pricing.

Contact Info:


Image Credits
AD aka Kaya @kayashoots. For professional greenery shots. All other photos credited to Vanna Black. @therealvannablack

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