AUSTIN, Texas – Creating a piece of art takes more than creativity and a good eye, it also takes courage. One Austin artist is sharing her story about how she had to gain the courage to finally go after her dream.
- Wasn’t happy not creating art
- Started creating more in her free time
- Exhibit will soon travel to Nigeria
Dawn Okoro has had quite a journey. She went to law school and spent years as a journalist— currently she’s a digital producer at Spectrum News— but she's an artist at heart.
“I’ve always just wanted to be an artist but by the time I graduated high school, I didn’t know what to do, like, how to be an artist," she said. “Once I graduated college, I still did not know what I wanted to do in life. I knew I wanted to create but then I was also worried about having a steady paycheck and stability, so I went to law school.”
“I just wasn’t happy not creating so just a few years ago, I started picking up the paintbrush again and started painting again,” Okoro said.
It was a sense of joy she missed that inspired her to bare her soul to the world; most recently about her love for punk culture.
“When I was younger, I was interested in it." she said. "I listened to punk music and was interested in some of that but I felt it wasn’t for me as a black girl.”
But after a hundreds of brush strokes and over 20 pieces, “Punk Noir” was born.
“With Punk Noir, I was thinking about my own feelings of just not fitting in anywhere," Okoro said. "It could just be me being creative and weird, but I found through punk, I found that it’s a movement that’s accepting of just about everyone.”
Okoro’s “Punk Noir” has visited cities like New York, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas— and people noticed. She was one of 50 black women that participated in Austin Woman Magazine’s highlight of “What is means to be black in Austin.”
“It’s a little different for me because as you may know, I’m just very shy, very introverted, very quiet," she said. “I hope that through the recognition that I have, I hope that people will see my face and someone will feel inspired in some way that they can do what they want to do, as well.”
Okoro is planning to work on more art installations in the future but for now “Punk Noir” is about to go international, heading to Lagos, Nigeria, this summer.