Who’s Next: Lacy Talley

Lacy Talley in front of her “I AM Resetting” mural at Public Square in downtown Cleveland this past summer. Digital illustration. Photo / Bob Perkoski

Age: 28 • Lives and creates: Cleveland • Learned: BA in Visual Communication Design from Kent State University

Over the last few years, Lacy Talley has turned her multidisciplinary artistic skills into partnerships with brands, organizations and causes drawn to highlighting her bright and bold creations. 

She’s also used inspiration from her personal mindfulness practice to create exhibits and murals around Northeast Ohio. 

A graduate of Glenville High School, the Cleveland native grew up drawing with her artist father. They had a shared book in which they took turns responding to each others’ drawings with new sketches. 

After graduating from Kent State University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in visual communication design and a minor in Pan African studies, Talley moved back to Cleveland. She got a “really huge graphic design contract,” however, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, she says that contract suddenly became void. 

“I never wanted to feel that feeling again as far as someone having control over the work that I do, just being able to take it away so fast,” she says on a Zoom interview. “So, I was like, you know what, I’m going to create full-time now and see how it goes.”

It’s been pretty smooth so far, she says, and she “wouldn’t change it for the world.” In addition to making and selling her own art, she partners to create for brands like Maker’s Mark, teaches art workshops, does freelance digital projects and works with organizations like the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning and Karamu House, both in Cleveland.

Talley works in a range of mediums including acrylic, watercolor, clay, screen printing and digital, and her pieces are usually figure based. Coming up with ideas for what to create is rarely a struggle. 

“Creating something new, it will really just hit me,” she says. “I’ll be sitting on the couch … or watching something, and a whole idea of a painting just comes to my mind.” She has to start making it “right then and there.”

Her artwork is vivid in color with mystical messaging that’s equally lively and motivational. It became that way through her own mental health journey and techniques she’s learned through therapy, she says. 

“Right now, a lot of my work is centered around ‘I am’ affirmations and grounding techniques and coping mechanisms,” she says, adding that she’s had to learn how to “self-soothe” and process her experiences and emotions. Through her art, she wants to make those lessons and affirmations accessible to anyone who sees it, incorporating meaningful objects like crystals and aesthetics that draw from movements like Afrofuturism and Surrealism. 

Talley takes inspiration from artists like Reyna Noriega, who “show me different things I didn’t know you could do with your art,” she adds. She says she’s learned early in her career the importance of negotiating fair wages for her commissions, and advocating for herself was part of that process.

Among her biggest successes so far, in 2022, Talley was selected for a team of graphic designers to create the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Trophy, an NBA award named after the basketball star to honor other players advancing social justice causes. She learned about and was asked to take it on as an alumni of the Marcus Graham Project, a nonprofit geared toward helping people of color succeed in marketing and advertising industries, she says. She had previously participated in programming put on by the organization and also volunteered for it. 

Also through her involvement with the Marcus Graham Project, she was part of a team that designed an artistic press conference table-like sculpture commemorating the Ali Summit, a 1967 Cleveland gathering at which Muhammad Ali and several other top Black athletes came together to support Ali’s choice not to enter the draft for the Vietnam War. The sculpture is housed where the summit took place, now the home of the American Cancer Society of Cleveland.

This past summer, Talley’s mural work was in focus at Public Square in downtown Cleveland, commissioned by LAND studio. Her mural, “I AM Resetting,” depicts three “crystal ladies” – characters representing qualities like protection and wisdom, along with a mushroom house and other symbolic scenery, she says. She’s painted in the mural, as is her “bleeb blob” character which she says serves as a “protector” and is in “about 90% of my artwork.” Viewers can try to find the “bleeb blob” in each piece. 

“I wanted it to capture a world where I would go to reset,” she says of the mural. 

Her “I AM Resetting” theme will also take the stage at Lounges Content Studio in Cleveland Nov. 30,  introducing more than 20 new pieces. And, in summer 2025, she’ll have another exhibit at Lounges, “Crystal Gardens,” an “immersive healing space experience playing off the five senses,” she says. The project is funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation Satellite Fund from SPACES.

“I love trying new things and seeing where it takes me,” she says. “I’ve experienced a lot of happy accidents doing that.”  

– Amanda Koehn

WHAT OTHERS SAY

“Lacy is one of those artists that doesn’t fit the mold of any one type of art or medium: she a muralist, a designer, a community builder, videographer, a sculptor, a teacher. Her creativity, enthusiasm and positivity are infectious and are reflected in the art she creates. I’m so fortunate to know her and Cleveland is lucky to have her as part of our creative community.”

Erin Guido, director of arts + special projects, LAND studio

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