Today we’d like to introduce you to Thou Art Ju D.
Hi Thou Art, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Ever since I was a child, I’ve been deeply drawn to creativity. I remember tossing my clothes into the air, pretending I was decorating a boutique, and spending hours flipping through fashion magazines with my mother. That early love for beauty and expression has really been the common thread throughout my life.
After high school, I studied cosmetology, passing the state board, and became a licensed professional, then working in a few salons. But while I enjoyed the work, something was missing. I didn’t feel fulfilled creatively. That longing led me back to school to earn a degree in Liberal Arts, and though I went on to hold various administrative roles, I still felt a pull toward something more expressive.
Eventually, I made the leap into the fashion industry – where my heart had always truly been – and earned a second degree, this time in Fashion Design. It felt like coming home. For the first time, I had the freedom and space to bring my creative visions to life. I worked in fashion for a few years and loved it, but when I became a mother, I chose to step away from the industry to be fully present in my son’s early years. That will always be one of the most rewarding and purposeful decisions I’ve ever made.
Years later, I began painting – at first privately, then eventually sharing my work publicly. Visual art opened up yet another layer of expression for me. I honored a promise I made to my father by releasing my first book of poetry on what would have been his 86th birthday. Writing became another outlet for processing life and connecting with others.
Following a number of life shifts, I relocated across the country to Georgia and began seriously planting roots in the art community. Since then, I’ve shown work across Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, New York, and even Miami Beach during Art Basel. I’ve continued writing and publishing, each project motivated by the hope of encouraging someone else to keep going, no matter what they’re facing.
Most recently, I’ve stepped into the role of a certified Motivational Coach. In many ways, this felt like a natural evolution – speaking, uplifting, and guiding others has always been part of who I am. I now support women through deeply personalized coaching, helping them rediscover self-appreciation and align with their God-given purpose. I rely on faith and God’s guidance in every session, and it’s an honor to be trusted with people’s journeys.
So, in short, creativity, purpose, faith, and the belief that my gifts are meant to be shared has carried me from season-to-season. Every chapter has prepared me for the next, and I’m excited to see where the story goes from here.
Stay tuned… Up next, t-shirts!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Well first, let’s define success. I view success as maintaining the determination to submit my will daily in exchange for the will of God. Now it’s not always a simple, “Good morning, Father, here’s my will, let’s roll with whatever You say, however it looks through my eyes, and with no regard for how it feels!” Yet, I understand that my life has purpose and I am at my best level of success when I am surrendered.
Has the road been smooth? Not even close. This road has had potholes, detours, dead ends, and danger zones, and I’ve still got some miles to go. If anything, thus far, it’s been a journey of survival and transformation more than a straight path to success. [Haha, don’t let the faith talk fool you, Believers still go through some things, it’s just that no matter the storm, we are anchored to the Everlasting.]
I really began to explore art on a deeper level during a season of intense personal trial. Both of my sisters were battling illness at the same time. I was their caregiver, although to me, it was just being a good sister. Art became a refuge, a way to process what I couldn’t always articulate. Well, honestly it was art and retail therapy, but that’s a story for another day, LOL!
When my eldest sister passed away due to complications from the illness she was battling, everything shifted. Creating wasn’t just therapeutic anymore, it became a mission. I knew she had unexpressed talents, dreams, and ideas that never got to live. That pressed me into being determined to birth mine. Partially in honor of her, and then to finally release the gifts that I knew I had been carrying since I was a small child.
Then two years later, just four days before my first public art show, my mother passed unexpectedly. I had been anxiously awaiting her return home from what was supposed to be a short hospital stay. I was excited, expecting to show her what I planned to exhibit – a painting that was at the time the most beautiful I had ever created and a huge artificial rose that I was going to display as decoration and then gift it to her as a surprise. She never got to see them. That loss was DEVASTATING!
Less than a year later, my father suddenly fell ill and within weeks also passed. As tragic as it was to no longer have him here, I remain forever grateful for the times we shared after my mom’s passing. It brought us closer in a wonderful way that I never knew I needed. My parents had been married and present throughout my entire life, but I never understood my father until the last year of his life. And then sadly, that understanding grew even more as I sorted and cleaned through items in the family home. It made me grieve my father in a profoundly deep way.
Then my son – my only child – entered college all the way on the other side of the continent. I never imagined that my empty nest season would unfold through loss and such a great distance.
For a new life direction, I took a huge step and relocated to Georgia. But the “new direction” turned into another battleground. Within months of being here I was scammed, disregarded, erroneously judged… and that’s just the beginning.
The house I bought turned out to be a money pit. I was sexually assaulted by a contractor who came to give an estimate for some of the desperately needed repairs. My security camera captured a would-be robber peering into my window while I was away. I didn’t even have a working kitchen – which meant living off takeout and quickly burning through the money I had left. These aren’t the only major issues I became aware of in the home that I had just purchased. The entire electrical system – with parts charred and crumbling. No viable plug for a refrigerator in the kitchen. The roof. The doors. The bamboo… oh the bamboo.
In faith, I painted, I wrote, I created all things that came to mind, but the client base that I expected didn’t emerge. So, what does faith do? It grows. I added delivery driver to my repertoire, and though the deliveries weren’t bringing in much money, I thought I was okay.
Well, guess what happened next? The car I had poured over $10,000 into completely gave out, with the brakes failing while I was making a delivery at a location with a very steep driveway. So, what does faith do? It grows. I leaned into my faith deeper than I had ever done before, and I decided to trust that God could and would get whatever I needed to me while I was stranded at home.
I participated in a “Take Back the Night” event at a local university, where I received a standing ovation after sharing the story of my experience with the contractor who violated me in my new home. That was when I realized that everything I was going through was bigger than me. Standing in darkness, my light was still evident and relevant to others.
I kept painting. I kept writing. I kept building. Because I believed that my spark would one day fan into a blazing flame. I still maintain this perspective, because what does faith do? It grows. So, I continue to create, and more and more, my audience is arriving.
So no, the road hasn’t been smooth and still isn’t smooth. I won’t even get started on the effects of Hurricane Helene. But every painful twist continues to shape the depth of my art, the honesty in my writing, the messaging on my merch, and the power within my voice when I speak.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in mixed media visual art, but even that term feels like just the surface of what I do. My work is textured, both in material and meaning. It’s layered with emotion, memory, story, and spirit. In painting, I work across materials, but recently, what’s been setting my work apart is my use of genuine leather – an element I’ve begun incorporating into select pieces.
As a native Californian transplant, my art introduces a new cultural prospective to the local art community here in Georgia. Typically, California’s art scene can be viewed as avant-garde and experimental, so what I create is fresh and it pushes one to the point of intrigue, sparking conversation.
The California in me lends to free expression, similar to that of the movement of the ocean. The water has no particular place to go, though it simply, yet powerfully, enjoys floating there because it is certain that’s where it belongs. Creativity is where I belong.
Whether I’m painting, writing, designing merch, or speaking, I aim to tell a story that will create connection. I want to stir something – a question, a memory, a revelation. I want people to see what I see, then tell me what they see. I’m not trying to decorate a wall; I’m trying to speak to the soul.
I never mind if one dislikes my art, I only mind if they are not willing to view my pieces and then hear the story behind their creation. Not as a way to change their opinion, but instead as a way of validating my willingness to be vulnerable and by acknowledging the existence of my vision and thought process.
The elements of my works that delight me the most can’t be hung in a gallery or printed in a book. I’m fulfilled when I acknowledge the quiet, daily courage it takes to keep showing up for this calling, continuing to understand what comes next by continuing to surrender.
I moved to a place where no one knew me – no built-in community, no ready-made audience. And I chose to give living as a creative a real chance. I turned what would traditionally be the living room of my home into my personal artist studio. Not because it’s ideal, but because it was necessary. The work has to be made, whether the world is clapping yet or not. My level of faith – in God, in my calling, in the unseen future – is something I’m deeply encouraged by.
I think what sets me apart is that I don’t just make art, I make my feelings tangible, exposing them in order to expose myself. Every brushstroke, every word I write, every design, every story I tell from a stage is rooted in real life – joy, pain, loss, hope, and the grace of God that holds it all together. I’m building an empire not from comfort, but from spending my talents and walking in my calling. I know what it costs to keep going when everything around you says to stop. But I also know that those who dare to create in the dark are the ones who end up shining the brightest light.
So, yes, I specialize in mixed media and blending genres. But more than that, I specialize in purpose -turning my life into legacy, and the struggles into something that will produce good fruit as evidence of Christ in me with a tangible overflow to serve others from.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Honestly, I’d say it’s a combination of two things. First and foremost, my faith in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. That’s been my foundation through every season – the highs, the lows, the moments of clarity, and the times I had more questions than answers. My beliefs and the actions that stem from them keep me anchored to the truth and remind me that my creativity has a purpose beyond just fun and self-expression.
Secondly, I think I just see the world a little differently than most people. I usually don’t follow the conventional path or think in the most linear way, and that’s actually worked in my favor. Being that I am self-taught, there are so many rules that I don’t know, except the rule that art, even creativity as a whole, has no rules.
Whether I’m painting, writing, speaking, or even just being silly with my son, I tend to explore ideas and perspectives that others might not consider, and that difference has helped me connect with people in a unique and meaningful way – the Ju D way!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thouartjud.bigcartel.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/thouartjud and instagram.com/judthecoach
- Other: Amazon (books)- amazon.com/author/thouartjud Printify (t-shirts)- justtruthdisplayed.printify.me Digital (Mind Movie Workbook)- thouartjud.systeme.io/infoseewhatgodsaid
Image Credits
All images are personal and require no permission or crediting for use.
