Rising Stars: Meet Dorothy Reavis of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dorothy Reavis.

Hi Dorothy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Most of my adult life, I battled with finding purpose in serving my community creatively while balancing the commitment to my personal artistic journey. I started my career as a high school art teacher and centered my professional focus on advocating for accessibility for arts education and demonstrated how the visual arts supports academics and the overall intellectual and cultural development of students. This was during a time when arts programs were being cut regularly. I extended beyond the classroom and held lectures and presentations at conferences; both the national and local levels. I also spent long hours researching the links of learning and neuroscience to visual arts.

Though I was successful and became a strong educator, the need to create for myself was ever present. I was an artist and creating was like breathing- and I wasn’t breathing. I needed to give myself a real chance. So, after 12 years as as a teacher, I finally committed to creating full time and my fine art and public art career started taking off. I supplemented teaching college at Georgia Highlands College- which I love. I have several public artworks stretched from southern Appalachia communities to Villa Rica, I’ve been included in museum shows, gallery shows and markets in the north metro area. I’m proud of the work I have done, but being an artist is journey and there are twists and turns you never see coming. You can make what sells and be successful, but that doesn’t make it meaningful. I started pulling back from shows and then focusing centrally on the work that was meaningful to me, personally I felt like I had a story to tell, and I am still telling that story.

The current series I am working on is entitled “Spirits and Stories” which is loosely based on indigenous stories I grew up reading and listening to and then relating my own experience through painting. (I’m happy to talk more about that specifically if interesting for the article) Though I am native to Marietta, GA. I do have family out west in Oklahoma and have early memories of the West. My grandmother and great grandmother were both artists and I was raised in home full of their paintings, which influenced me and never left me. Though my style has moved away from classicalism (which was their style) and taken more of an expressive, contemporary approach- I still honor the integrity of good technical painting. This series is taken shape and one is currently at the Booth Western Art museum featured in a show.

On this part of my journey, where I am creating for the sake of soul, rather than fiscal gain, I was presented the opportunity to teach in my childhood hometown at a title 1 school, which is a diverse and mostly immigrant community. This school needed an art program, and I couldn’t look away. Though I still teach adjunct at GA Highlands, I went back to teaching full time in a precious community this past year. I start my days between 3:30-4:00 am- to paint and run my fine art business. Life is about experiences and opportunities and in my experience, I couldn’t choose just one passion and I learned to balance both.

I’m not quite sure what else to write for your article. If you have questions, please ask and I can also elaborate.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest challenge I’ve faced is balancing being a mother, working both full and part time, and finding time to create and market my work- while not giving up completely! Sometimes you want to throw in the towel and give up your creative life, but you don’t. You keep going. It will happen, it has happened and nothing but good can from it. I have developed a strong work ethic and furthered my passions because of the difficulties and challenges along the way.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a multidisciplinary artist and a Marietta native whose disciplines are rooted in classical drawing and painting. My practice honors the technical rigor and observational depth in portraiture and figurative work through compositional elements. I infuse foundational techniques with modern perspectives, exploring color, light, and shape. I am currently exploring storytelling and reinterpreting narratives, which is specific to my personal upbringing and background, while applying my own experience in the narrative.

I might be best known for my illustrative murals and what sets me apart from other artists is that I have a lot of variety in my work and work within many styles and materials. My murals are more illustrative and colorful, while my personal fine art is more figurative and contemporary.

What makes you happy?
My children make me happy and seeing my children in their natural creative state brings me tremendous joy. As we get older and become more influenced by the world around us and loose sight of natural play and creativity. Children have the wonderful ability to remind us of who we were before the world told us who to be.

Seeing people stop and look at my art and sit for a while, also makes me very happy. I also love when they buy it, but real currency is that they understand it or feel it- gives me chills.

Pricing:

• typically murals are $35 dollars per square foot, but travel and supplies may be added depending on location and other circumstances
• Orginal artworks range from $300-3000+ Depending on what it is such as a drawing or an oil painting
• I do have archival and giclee prints available from $20-200

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dorothyreavis.com
• Instagram: @dottyreavis