DIONNE VICTORIA STUDIOS, INC.
www.dionnevictoria.com
Biography
Dionne Victoria was born in Chicago to Victor Simmons Sr. and Dionne Milton. Throughout her childhood she moved all over the city. During her earliest years, she lived in the Oakland area. She then resided in Roseland where she attended both public and private schooling. Through it all, her parents maintained her participation in the arts. By the time she reached high school she was being commissioned to do family portraits. Her first painting received the All City Poster Award and was featured on all the promotional materials for the exhibition in 2007. She has been given honorable mention in the Black Creativity exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry and has been exhibited in the Congress Library in Washington D.C.
She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2011. During her time in school she interned for Peter Mars Gallery, 4Art Inc. and the Good, Bad and Ugly Gallery located within University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2012, she travelled abroad to teach English in Korea. There she learned to use the arts to teach English as second language. In 2013 she began volunteering at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center facilitating therapeutic art.
Dionne currently works as a teaching artist for Sky Art. Recently she has developed an arts integration program at the National Teachers Academy. Her art has been shown internationally and published on the cover of a limited edition book titled Man, Woman and Child by Dr. Delbert Blair.
www.dionnevictoria.com
Biography
Dionne Victoria was born in Chicago to Victor Simmons Sr. and Dionne Milton. Throughout her childhood she moved all over the city. During her earliest years, she lived in the Oakland area. She then resided in Roseland where she attended both public and private schooling. Through it all, her parents maintained her participation in the arts. By the time she reached high school she was being commissioned to do family portraits. Her first painting received the All City Poster Award and was featured on all the promotional materials for the exhibition in 2007. She has been given honorable mention in the Black Creativity exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry and has been exhibited in the Congress Library in Washington D.C.
She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2011. During her time in school she interned for Peter Mars Gallery, 4Art Inc. and the Good, Bad and Ugly Gallery located within University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2012, she travelled abroad to teach English in Korea. There she learned to use the arts to teach English as second language. In 2013 she began volunteering at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center facilitating therapeutic art.
Dionne currently works as a teaching artist for Sky Art. Recently she has developed an arts integration program at the National Teachers Academy. Her art has been shown internationally and published on the cover of a limited edition book titled Man, Woman and Child by Dr. Delbert Blair.
Artist Statement
We are not bastards. We are life’s longing for existence. We are love in essence. Our very presence depicts our determination. Our strides leave a mark that identifies our lives as a triumph in the world of lack luster. We are the color; the representation of life! We have suffered and so have you! We can’t continue to ignore the love needed to mend the pain that has taken place. Everybody is suffering, both the oppressed and oppressors and we would disservice ourselves to ignore that fact. It’s time for happy healing. These pieces are about love, about character and about making a change from inside out. My goal is to spread love by repeating words of healing and happiness and show healthy images that look like me and those around me. |