Lady Vasiliki Mitchell

Artist Statement

I am a self-taught, contemporary artist whose artwork has been published in 6 magazines (digital and print). I have won the Creative Catalyst Award in MD, 2025, Creativity Grant, 2024, and featured in over 30 exhibitions over the course of 4 years. I am truly honored and privileged to have come this far and my journey and am anxious to see what I accomplish next. I paint because I cannot see myself doing anything else. Painting is something that I have been doing since childhood and has come back full circle to be my career. I say full circle because painting has become my therapy. I lost my mother in February 2019, and before talking to the therapist, I picked up a paintbrush and learned how to express beautiful emotions. No matter what I could have been feeling at that moment, I have always been able to be creative from a happy place. Not knowing that I was using art to express myself through the colors of paint. I always had a passion for my art classes and never thought I would become a professional artist. Looking back on how far I have come I challenge myself to keep going to the next. The anxiety of what to create fuels me to break out from being shy, and I start the research needed to create which consists of going through colorful visuals to enhance my palette.

I make art to inspire the little child who thinks that her artwork is not good enough. I have submitted grant proposals to orchestrate an art program that teaches in a 3-week, 2-day, 2-hour workshop.

To be able to connect with the youth to me is the future. I love having conversations with the youth about what they aspire to be when they grow up, especially within the art world. Telling me of their ambitions and goals means the world to me because my art is making an impact, and they feel comfortable enough to share their world. This is why I make art; this is why I keep going. I love meeting people from different journeys and walks, and they express themselves so freely to me, allowing my artwork to speak to them.

My canvas artwork consists of oil and acrylic paint. Allowing me to create a lot easier on the eye of what I see. Sometimes I prefer the oil over the acrylic paint because of how I can create and push on dimensions. Customizing sneakers and using Angelus Leather paint gives the same free range, but the detail is created from the brushes. It gets a little intricate when filling in a certain shade to give a specific dimension. Even a 3D effect can be shown by the detail of a specific brush. Sometimes, the quality of the paint used matters, but it is more about the skill of the artist. What meets the eye. I try to match what I feel and when working on commissions I match what I see. And my denim apparel collection replicated the same. My signature look is plaint splats and a scan barcode with a silhouette pushing the bars up.

My art means the world to me because of the connections that I make through it. I enjoy meeting people from all over whether artists or not and allowing my artwork to be the conversation piece. I am truly inspired by the shows that I have been a part of and the people that I have met. I love how I can freely express myself to the world to see.