Vanessa K. Stokes is a young self-taught artist who has, since childhood, always had her nose in a book and hands creating art. She was born and raised in Oregon and visited Seaside every summer while growing up to spend time with her family. She has many fond memories of the beach, the winding forests that line the highway to it, and the way the moon casts shadows across the mountains visible from the resort her family always stayed at. She creates her art from her at home art studio and office, which she plans to add an outdoor space to so she can create her art in nature’s embrace. She finds Oregon’s rain especially calming and inspiring.

Her earliest memories of creating art consist of making clay sculptures and her childhood dreams of being a fashion designer. She soon discovered comics afterwards and abandoned her dreams of being a fashion designer for more vivid dreams of fantasy worlds. She used her art as an escape into another kind of world that could never exist here and did her best to imprint that world upon paper for others to see. Inspired by the unknown and unreal, she drew everyday chronicling the stories of her creations.

She quickly learned the deep connection art had to oneself. Even if an artist doesn’t intend to, every work of art tells a deep and complex story about the artist. Each artist has a unique trait as well that indicates a piece of art is their own. Moving forwards, she drew inspiration from everything around her, not just her imagination. Nothing is more inspiring than life itself and all the beautiful emotions and experiences that accompany it. Today her work is more focused around discovery and creating works of art that shine a light into other people’s lives.

Vanessa started displaying her art in eateries at the young age of 15 and showed in her first gallery at the age of 16 with her first self-published comic titled “Dream”. Her comic was focused on two main characters who explore lucid dreams together. She drew inspiration from her own experiences with sleep and continues to be inspired by her unconscious mind today. Her artwork mainly consists of one primary subject drawn in ink. She loves exploring any artist tool she can get her hands on and uses a blend of watercolor, pencils, pens, and ink to create her art. Her future goals are to own her own gallery that gives opportunities to artists of all art forms, own a clothing line that focuses on empowering people, create meaningful comics, and have lots of dogs!

She would like to give thanks to her loving parents who support her creativity, her loving grandparents who help her endlessly, and her generous friends whose kind words have given her the confidence to share herself with the world. Thank you to all the galleries and onlookers who make this dream a possibility and reality too.

“Get hopelessly lost in the art you make. Go down for days and come out on the other side with scrapes and bruises and a masterpiece.” – Ariel Bloomer

“It is an honor to be part the family of artists of Fairweather Gallery, not only because of its importance on the coast but, most important, for the professionalism and warmth in assisting me on my emerging art journey.”  VKS

Close up detail of Vanessa K. Stokes pen and ink art with watercolor titled “Divine”.

Vanessa K. Stokes revealed new art during the opening reception of HUE, Fairweather’s December exhibition.

Vanessa K. Stokes chose an outfit to complement her art for the Fairweather HUE exhibiton.

Vanessa K. Stokes  applied make up to  complement her art for the Fairweather HUE exhibiton.

In a heart warming artist talk, Vanessa shared her goal to have a gallery to promote young emerging artists.

Vanessa K. Stokes revealed new art during the opening reception of HUE, Fairweather’s December exhibition.

Photo collage by Linda Fenton-Mendenhall.

Read more about the artist at:

Fun Fact:

Vanessa K. Stokes was introduced at Fairweather’s when she was fifteen, as an artist to watch.

An emerging artist is someone who’s in the early stage of their career, someone who’s caught the eye of an art critic and/or gallery.

“We are proud to welcome Vanessa K. Stokes to the family of emerging and established artists at Fairweather Gallery.”

http://www.fairweatherhouseandgallery.com