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What We Do
Bayou Bay, Olivia Levins Holden, and Nell Pierce make up Studio Thalo, a Minneapolis-based artist collective and studio established in 2016. We integrate our skills as community muralists, graphic designers, and organizers to create graphic recordings for organizations and groups working toward equity, healing, and justice. We show up to events, conferences, meetings, and community conversations as listeners and artists, and we create graphic recordings—in the form of live paintings or digital designs—that reflect the heart of what we hear. When we graphically record a gathering, we often ask participants to act as models for our designs, and always incorporate phrases and ideas from people in the room. We aim to create art that can serve as a visual reminder of the values, voices, and visions within a given community. In a world of overstimulated minds, we believe that our artwork – whether painted live or created digitally – can support participants to connect to the content of their work on a deeper, more embodied level. Studio Thalo has worked with a range of clients, including large foundations and universities, small and medium 501c3 organizations, and grassroots organizing groups. Together, we have created over 30 graphic recordings for events and meetings. Our clients have installed our graphic recordings as physical murals, shared the images digitally on their websites, and used them in printed materials. They stay with client organizations as tools for continued engagement. |
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Who We Are
Bayou Bay (he/they/stardust pronouns) is a Twin Cities based installation artist and designer born in St. Paul on the occupied lands of the Dakota & Anishinaabe peoples. Bayou creates mixed-media art called Affirmation Mirrors composed mostly of fabric wrapped wood, yarn, mirrors, and beads. He also creates murals, art installations, digital illustrations, digital and print materials for artists and organizations, woodwork, and works as a teaching artist.
Bayou’s art and design embody themes of nature from the micro to the cosmic, black and collective liberation, healing trauma, time, portals, geometry, setting intentions for affirmations, asking questions, symbols, and identity exploration. Water is an especially strong theme in the work as HaHa Wakpa (the Mississippi River) has been a major influence in many levels of Bayou’s life. Bayou is 1/3rd of the Studio Thalo artist collective, a member of the Million Artist Movement artist cooperative, and a collaborating muralist with the Creatives After Curfew mural collective.
Bayou’s art and design embody themes of nature from the micro to the cosmic, black and collective liberation, healing trauma, time, portals, geometry, setting intentions for affirmations, asking questions, symbols, and identity exploration. Water is an especially strong theme in the work as HaHa Wakpa (the Mississippi River) has been a major influence in many levels of Bayou’s life. Bayou is 1/3rd of the Studio Thalo artist collective, a member of the Million Artist Movement artist cooperative, and a collaborating muralist with the Creatives After Curfew mural collective.
Olivia Levins Holden (she/ they pronouns) is a queer, mixed Boricua muralist, organizer, artist, and educator living on Dakota homeland in Mni Sota Makoce, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Olivia's work centers art as transformation,
connection, and narrative. She emphasizes community involvement and
collective design, drawing from conversations and people's history to create
collaborative public art. Since 2009, she has created and led murals in Minneapolis, California, and Puerto Rico, including Waves of Change/Oleadas de Cambio (2015), Defend, Nurture, Grown Phillips (2019), and Ritmos y Raíces de Resistencia (2021).
Olivia leads the Power of Vision Mural Project and Transformational Creative Strategies Training (TRCSTR) at Hope Community. She is a founding member of Studio Thalo Collective. Olivia received a 2022 McKnight Fellowship for Community Engaged Artists.
connection, and narrative. She emphasizes community involvement and
collective design, drawing from conversations and people's history to create
collaborative public art. Since 2009, she has created and led murals in Minneapolis, California, and Puerto Rico, including Waves of Change/Oleadas de Cambio (2015), Defend, Nurture, Grown Phillips (2019), and Ritmos y Raíces de Resistencia (2021).
Olivia leads the Power of Vision Mural Project and Transformational Creative Strategies Training (TRCSTR) at Hope Community. She is a founding member of Studio Thalo Collective. Olivia received a 2022 McKnight Fellowship for Community Engaged Artists.
Nell Pierce (they/them pronouns) is a community muralist, collage artist, and teaching artist who sees art as a powerful tool for telling stories. Raised in California and Maine, they’ve resided on the beautiful and occupied Dakota homeland of Mni Sota Makoce (Minnesota) since 2014, surrounded by people who teach them to live in questions about how to be in right relationship with this place as a European-American.
They’ve been a facilitator and teacher since 2007, working independently and with organizations like Telling My Story and the Speaking Out Collective to support people in schools, community centers, prisons, and other settings to feel narrative agency through visual art and theater.
Their long-term collage project, Q’llage, explores how the strategies that support them and their queer community to stay true to themselves are mirrored in the resilience of plants—drawing from engagement with people in their LGBTQ2IA+ community.
They are a founding member of Studio Thalo and the Creatives After Curfew muralist collective.
They’ve been a facilitator and teacher since 2007, working independently and with organizations like Telling My Story and the Speaking Out Collective to support people in schools, community centers, prisons, and other settings to feel narrative agency through visual art and theater.
Their long-term collage project, Q’llage, explores how the strategies that support them and their queer community to stay true to themselves are mirrored in the resilience of plants—drawing from engagement with people in their LGBTQ2IA+ community.
They are a founding member of Studio Thalo and the Creatives After Curfew muralist collective.