Lydia Walls Graves (b. in 1982) is a southern born and bred artist based out of Atlanta, Georgia.  She received her Bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Georgia State University in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking.  In addition, she has made sewn soft sculpture installations, stop animations, upholstered objects, and styled weddings. Much of her past creative experience has been working collaboratively with the art collective Golden Blizzard.

Influenced by southern culture, folklore, and a variety of subcultures, her “work is a valentine to talent in many realms…” according to art critic Felicia Feaster in her article Strange and wonderful works of 4 at Barbara Archer Gallery. Lydia has worked with an array of galleries and museums in Atlanta, painted custom commissions, and represented the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center at the Affair at the Jupiter Hotel in Portland, Oregon. Her Flannery O’Conner portrait was recently included in Brooke Hatfield’s “Scale Highly Eccentric: A Zine of Flannery O’Connor Portraits,” which was featured on The Bitter Southerner.

With the ability to conceptualize and execute projects promptly, Lydia completed the mural at Ria’s Bluebird this spring, 100 Southerners in five months, 365 portraits in one year, and regularly paints custom pet portrait commissions the day they are requested. In 2015, she served as the Gilda Radner Research and Translation Center’s inaugural Artist-In-Residence and interpreted materials and created for the program both on- and off-site. In her spare time, she works on the Fifty States project. Lydia is represented by Barbara Archer Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lydia is married to Zack. They live in Reynoldstown in Atlanta, Georgia with their two dogs Fritz and Annie, as well as their shrimp brother Alex the Great.

• Year of the Rabbit