Jazzie Jelks Verified listing

My art is freedom. My art is self-liberation for myself and the local, everyday people I center in my creations. My art is a revolution of reimagining, shaped by the hands and joy of people rich in radical imagination and innovation. People who have built nations who continue to devalue their societal contributions, their souls, and their very existence.

When I was little, I wanted to be anything I wanted to be. Free to carve a life that could hold and welcome a lifelong exploration of all I held within me. All the stories, dreams, memories, pictures, and curiosity I held housed in my little body. I allow my creativity to be the same—uninhibited by one singular method or medium. My creative process is putting my utensils to the canvas or page, and letting God take me to a place where there is no time or space. I am a painter who uses washes of acrylic, gouache, watercolor, and oil paints to make my subjects’ eyes speak and their souls breathe, my paintings coming to life layer by layer the closer I get to making their voices so unmistakably alive that they will never again be ignored. I am a writer of stories that take the shape of novels, poetry, spoken word, short stories, and animation. I am a voice for the inner worlds that live in BIPOC corner store talks, folklore, daydreams, and imaginations.

I am a world of pure imagination. These are the words I choose to define me for me in a world that can’t seem to stand the sight of a person so free. I am a mosaic—a tapestry woven of my natural uniqueness, those who’ve come before me, those I’ve held closest, and all the little moments that delight my memory. And so is my work.

Themes Fueling My Work:

• Ancestral memory & intergenerational legacy
• Land, lineage & Southern Black rural life
• Imagination as rebellion & survival
• Liberation through beauty, softness, and storytelling
• Speculative futures & worldbuilding beyond the status quo
• Emotional truth, identity, and self-reclamation
• Femininity as sacred, audacious, and multidimensional
• The tension between tenderness and resistance
• Self-taught artistry & creative sovereignty
• Everyday life as sacred, cinematic, and full of magic

Inspirations that Shape My Art:

• The Southern Black women in your lineage
• Homeschooling, rural Alabama, and land stewardship
• Solarpunk, Afrofuturism & soft speculative futures
• Spirituality, ritual, and emotional intelligence
• Narrative artforms (film, fairytales, advice columns, animation, fandom)
• Artists like Ben Eblen, Kadir Nelson, Kayla Mahaffey, Hayao Miyazaki
• Conversations between softness and strength
• Black joy, survival, and memory as radical practices
• The body as a vessel of story, power, and art
• Childhood wonder, magic, and play as resistance

• Selected as a 2024 Southern Artist for Social Change by the National Performance Network (NPN)
• Lead artist and director of Spotlight: Black Rural Life, a multimedia grant-funded project including a feature-length documentary, interactive activity book, and nationwide speaking tour
• Awarded a multi-year artist grant supporting creative work rooted in land, legacy, and cultural memory
• Self-taught interdisciplinary artist working across visual art, writing, film, and immersive storytelling
• Actively building a growing body of narrative and visual work exploring themes of liberation, ancestral wisdom, and softness as resistance