Pittsburgh Creative Corps Artist Directory

Alecia Dawn Young

YOGAMOTIF

Primary Discipline

Community engagement and social justice
Digital / lighting / projection art
2-D art, including murals, mosaic, photography, etc.

Artistic Practice

Ceramic/glass
Digital/photography

About the Artist

Alecia DawnAlecia Dawn Young is an arts worker and educator with over 15 years of experience in community art and wellness education. The founder of YOGAMOTIF, she believes the creative process is an invitation to heal and invests her time in people, projects, and communities that explore these practices. She is a former K-12 art teacher who went on to manage and consult for art and wellness start-ups and established businesses in Pittsburgh and around the country. Alecia holds a Master of Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University, Bachelor of Fine Arts from Alfred University, and is a registered yoga teacher. As a recipient of numerous awards and accolades, her life reflects a commitment to the arts, Black women, and wellness.

Artist Statement:

Alecia Dawn Young honors the humanity of Black motherhood – using pattern, color, and line to document and explore her lived experiences. Playful, bright, and touch-inviting creative works are studied through digital, clay, and mixed media compositions.

Works highlight Black hair maintenance rituals – particularly the intimate and sacrosanct process of a parent doting on, cleansing, and styling their child’s hair. Hair products, accessories, and hair designs inspire digital portraits of hot combs, brushes, ballies, and intimate moments of care. Ceramic pieces range from wall art to functional tableware and feature freehand carvings or hand painted illustrations.

Ultimately, her work is celebratory–a paean to blackness, to birthing, to mothering, to creating, and to finding, making, exploring, and keeping space for Black mother to just be.

Photo by Sean Carroll

Web

Accreditations, Certifications, and/or Awards

  • Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Award, The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments, 2021;
  • Network (Artist) Residency, Sibyls Shrine, 2020;
  • Creative Business Accelerator: Craft Business Grant Award, Bridgeway Capital, 2020;
  • Pittsburgh’s 40 under 40, Pittsburgh Magazine and Pump, 2018;
  • Fab 40 Award, New Pittsburgh Courier, 2018;
  • Citizen Service Award, City of Pittsburgh, 2012;
  • Project Pop Up Grant Award, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnerships, 2011

Provides Fabrication Services to Other Artists

Yes

Teaching Artist

Yes, ages 5 and up

Joined the Directory

May 2022

Related

PROJECT

Pittsburgh Creative Corps

Designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pittsburgh Creative Corps initiative engages artists and creative workers to activate the public realm while providing economic opportunity.

“The PCC has been an opportunity to reach new audiences and enhance my creative offerings with the help of a professional and supportive team.”

Alecia Dawn Young

Contact the Artist

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    Related

    PROJECT

    Pittsburgh Creative Corps

    Designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pittsburgh Creative Corps initiative engages artists and creative workers to activate the public realm while providing economic opportunity.

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