WHERE CAN YOU SEE HER WORK?
Our client list includes:
Our client list includes:
- The Colored Girls Museum, Philadelphia, PA
- The Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia, PA
- The Black Writers Museum, Philadelphia, PA
- Foundations, Inc., OSTRC, New Jersey
- Rose Petals Cafe, Elkins Park, PA
- Stephen Smith Towers Apartments, Philadelphia, PA
- The Lucien Crump Arts & Resource Center, Philadelphia, PA
- & More...
#fundBlackFutures March for Arts Funding in Philadelphia!June 16, 2020 | The Philadelphia Museum of Art Custom Arts Studio & the cast of
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Keisha "I Make Everything Beautiful" Whatley is selected for Artist Residency for 2019 Please Touch Museum Exhibit!
I am pleased and especially honored (& humbled) to announce that I have been selected for an Artist Residency as part of the 2019 America to Zanzibar:Muslim Cultures Near & Far exhibit at the Philadelphia Please Touch Museum. Read more about the exhibit which will be headed to Philly from the Manhattan Children's Museum here.
If you know me, you know that I have a huge heart for children, especially the intersection of children and the arts and I could not be more thrilled to work on this project. "This Residency offers new challenges and new opportunities to create artwork that speaks to children and adults alike."
If you know me, you know that I have a huge heart for children, especially the intersection of children and the arts and I could not be more thrilled to work on this project. "This Residency offers new challenges and new opportunities to create artwork that speaks to children and adults alike."
Photo Credit: Dakota Michael Pittman Jr. @ Live Painting- Beyond My Diagnosis
Mural Dedication
@ Stephen Smith Towers Apartments
December 7, 2019 | Stephen Smith Towers, West Philadelphia
Custom Arts Studio interview with Germantown Radio 92.9 FM
Take a listen to Artists Roundtable: The Creative Voice of Germantown's interview with Keisha Whatley, Founder and CEO of Custom Arts Studio, LLC.
The SOULS SHOT PROJECT.
This is our second year participating with The Souls Shot Project and it, again, has been very rewarding, difficult and moving to create a portrait of a victim of gun violence for this exhibit that will travel the country.
About The Soul Shot Project: This project links fine artists with families or friends of victims of gun violence. The artists meet with the victims' loved ones to learn about the lives they lived.
For more information, visit www.soulsshotportraitproject.org/about/
For more information, visit www.soulsshotportraitproject.org/about/
Launched August 2019!
Book Cover Art by Custom Arts Studio
Painting + Graphic Design
Custom Arts Studio @ The Barnes Foundation Museum!
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It's an exciting time to be an artist! Let's Connect Philly was an open call for artists in Philadelphia to visit the Barnes for free, find a work of art in the collection that inspired them and create a new work using the original as inspiration. Four artists will be selected for a one year Artist Residency. I chose Picasso's "Head of a Woman" and decided to ponder the question, "What would the woman look like if she were a black woman?" The piece is entitled, "Picasso in Color." May 21st and June 4th, 2018!
Keisha "I Make Everything Beautiful" Whatley Joins Beau Noir Publishing Company's lllustration Team!
Founded in 2017, Beau Noir Publishing is a full service publishing company established to develop and promote media that represents and inspires African American Youth. https://www.beaunoirbooks.com
The CREATE 2018 ARTIST JAM SESSION!
HUGE THANK YOU TO OUR BUSINESS SPONSORS*!
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Meet Keisha.
Well, hello there! I know this page looks all "official" but just know that I personally reply to every message and it is an honor to meet you today. How about we make something beautiful?
HER-STORY: Keisha Whatley is a Philadelphia artist who grew up in West Philadelphia. A graduate of Andrew Hamilton School and the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Keisha excelled at the drawing and painting discipline and went on to study at Parsons School of Design (NY), The School of Visual Arts (NY) and The Art Institute of Philadelphia (PA). She started Custom Arts Studio, LLC, a full service visual arts business, in 2018 after a long hiatus from painting or anything artistic. A PAUSE DOES NOT MEAN THE END! After returning to her creative roots in 2013 (she hadn't painted in over 15 years!), she became passionate about creative expression, the need for quality art programming in {all} schools, and encouraging people to pursue their dreams, no matter how outlandish they may seem. A signature piece, 'Baduism/20 Years of Paint,' is a testament to her journey: the painting was started in NYC in 1997 right before she stopped painting. Over 15 years later, when she started painting again, she would pull 'Baduism' out and paint it live at vending events; an hour or two here, a few minutes there... It was 20 years later, in 2017, that the painting was completed. Custom Arts Studio was incorporated in 2018... we have been going for five years but we are just getting started! 
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CLIENT LIST:"I have been there. Lost, confused, hating myself and wondering why. I used to say 'I have been to hell and back in a plastic elevator, covered with ether.' and I remember thinking, 'People don't understand what that means; what I mean when I say that. They think it is just poetry.' Being able to stand on the "through" side of pain, depression, & brokenness... to be able to look at it, dissect it and learn from it... is a miracle. It is that miracle that I wish to gift to all of my clients, event attendees and others that cross my path. To be able to create a space for others to get to their "other side" and create the beautiful life they deserve." |