Bio & Artist Statement

b. 1987

Savannah Mitchell graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a BA in Psychology and a BFA in Studio Art (Painting/Ceramics) in 2011. For over a decade, she ran a successful art business and taught hundreds of art-related workshops throughout the greater Oklahoma City area. In 2012, she was honored as one of Oklahoma’s New and Emerging Art Leaders for her community-building efforts. Her work has been exhibited in group, juried, and solo shows and resides in private collections around the world. Her art career was interrupted by the sudden onset of a disability in 2016, but in recent years she has renewed her focus on painting with a powerful series of female portraits entitled Skull Girls. When she isn’t painting, you can find her playing Dungeons & Dragons, reading, tending to an ever-growing collection of strange and carnivorous plants, and/or snuggling cats. She currently (reluctantly) resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Leaning heavily on natural imagery, a skillful use of vibrant colors, and a free-associative creative process, Savannah Mitchell strives to communicate meandering thoughts and complex emotions succinctly through paint. Driven by an insatiably curious spirit and formidable willpower, she maintains a healthy and vibrant creative routine despite living with a chronic illness. Her current artistic focus is an ambitious series of emotionally-charged female portrait paintings entitled Skull Girls. With them, she trudges through the muck of intensely difficult personal circumstances and complicated societal issues– including her diagnosis with a severe and incurable neurological disorder– with a welcome softness and somber beauty. Through them she shares the hard-won wisdom found in a nearly decade-long ordeal that threatened her life and nearly cost her her vision.

Exhibitions

  • 2025 – Power in Numbers – Gallery Nucleus – Alhambra, CA
  • 2024 – 46th Members’ Showcase – Artlink – Fort Wayne, IN
  • 2020 – Photography Memorial – Small Nature Vs. the Big Sad – Oklahoma City, OK
  • 2019 – Chicken Man Collective Art Show, Midwest City, OK
  • 2014-2015 – Hemingway Cafe, Oklahoma City, OK
  • 2011 – Sit! Stay! ART! – Central OK Humane Society Adoption Center, Oklahoma City, OK
  • 2010 – Quiet Spaces – Art by Savannah Mitchell – Southern Oaks, Oklahoma City, OK
  • 2010 – Senior Capstone Show – Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
  • 2010 – Momentum: Art Doesn’t Stand Still – Oklahoma City, OK
  • 2010 – Varsity Painting – Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
  • 2010 – Phantasma – Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
  • 2009 – Sit! Stay! ART! – Central OK Humane Society Adoption Center, Oklahoma City, OK
  • 2009 – University of Oklahoma Student Invitational – Osage Gallery, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK
  • 2009 – The Painted Feast – Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
  • 2008 – Trade Show – The Pleasantry, Norman, OK

Teaching

  • 2017+ – Watercolor 101 (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2017 – Clay Totem Animal Sculptures (Choctaw Public Schools)
  • 2017+ – Amate Paper Painting (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2017+ – Manga Drawing
  • 2016+ – Clay Totem Animal Sculptures (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2016 – Clay Totem Animal Sculptures (Thick Descriptions)
  • 2015+ – Gaming Crafts (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2015 – Super Zoo (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2014 – Cryptozoology Sewing Project (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2013+ – Crochet (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2013+ – Day of the Dead (2-D & 3-D) (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2012 – Crochet (Studio 222)
  • 2012+ – Post-it Note Murals (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2012+ – Fantasy Drawing (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2011 – Chinese Brush Painting/Sumi-E (Society of Arts and Crafts, Montgomery, AL)
  • 2011+ – Art After School (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2010+ – Puppetry (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2010 – Dav Pilkey Watercolor Painting (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2010+ – Stray Sock Sewing (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2009+ – Alebrijes (2-D & 3-D) (Metropolitan Library System)
  • 2008+ – Chinese Brush Painting/Sumi-E (Metropolitan Library System)

Press