Art and design are how I listen, remember, and respond.

I am Hayveyah McGowan, a multidisciplinary artist and designer based in St. Louis, Missouri. While painting and design are central to my practice, my work extends beyond any single medium. I move fluidly between visual art, graphic design, and experimental forms of making, guided by curiosity, intuition, and a deep interest in the intersections of spirit, culture, and imagination.

Creativity is both a discipline and a way of being. I approach my practice as an ongoing exploration that resists confinement to categories and instead embraces multiplicity. My work is rooted in storytelling, transformation, and the search for new ways art can shape how we see ourselves and the world around us.

As a designer, I help others give form to their visions, translating ideas into purposeful and visually resonant outcomes. That same commitment to clarity and connection informs my visual art, where I explore identity through both personal memory and collective histories. I am particularly drawn to the spiritual and ancestral forces that shape who we are, even when they are not immediately visible. These themes emerge in layered, tactile forms that invite reflection and emotional presence.

Much of my work honors the matriarchs in my lineage. Through materials and process, I create space for joy, radiance, and healing. Inspired by Adrienne Maree Brown’s Pleasure Activism, I use pleasure as a framework for liberation and self-reclamation.

My creative practice is grounded in care and intention. It offers a way to move through inherited trauma toward spiritual resilience, while also celebrating the beauty that persists in spite of oppression.