I paint to understand connection — to myself, to others, and how that sense of connection mirrors our relationship with the earth that holds us. My work explores the emergence of healing through community and how our inner landscapes reflect the world around us.
I weave recycled materials — fabric, buttons, and found textiles — into the surface of my paintings. These fragments carry their own stories, once part of someone’s hands or home, now reborn as part of a collective visual language. This reuse is both an artistic choice and an ethical one — a reflection of the effort to create sustainable art and the honoring of Mother Nature who reminds us that nothing is truly separate — not from each other, nor from the earth that gives us life. .
I build vibrant, textural worlds that bridge the human and natural — places where emotion, pattern, and energy coexist. The people I paint often look toward a future shaped by communal healing and a renewed reverence for Mother Nature — a future where creativity itself becomes an act of restoration.
Artist Bio
Jahna Rae’s passion for art began in early childhood, first inspired by her father, who was also an artist. Her first memories of creating date back to when she was two years old, covered in paint outside her home in Panama City, Panama.
Inspired by the people and places she traveled to as a kid in a military household, Jahna Rae developed an interest in portraiture and spirituality as she and her artistic practice grew. She attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2017 where she studied Illustration and learned more about the fundamentals of artmaking. After college Jahna Rae moved to Denver, Colorado where she was selected to participate in her first ever mural festival in 2021, thus officially beginning her career as an artist.
Since 2021, she has participated in numerous group exhibits, curated 3 solo shows, awarded three artist in residence programs and completed over a dozen murals around the state of Colorado. Jahna Rae now lives in Upstate, NY where she continues her art practice from her home studio.
CV
Jahna Rae
Painter | Illustrator | Muralist
Upstate NY
Education
2019 - Certificate UX Design - General Assembly
2017 - AA Illustration - The Academy of Art University
Group Exhibits
2021 - Babe Walls Emerging Artists Group Show - Denver, CO
2021 - June Shine Exhibit Group Show - Denver, CO
2021 - Redline Gallery Mural Project - Denver, CO
2021 - Matriarch Merchantile - Denver, CO
2022 - The Medusa Collective - Denver, CO
2022 - The Banshee House Women’s History Month - Denver, CO
2022 - Westward Gallery “Community” Exhibition - Denver, CO
2022 - AFUG Virtual Exhibit
2022 - Babe Walls Art Prom - Denver, CO
2024 - Babe Walls Group Show - Denver, CO
2024 - CU Boulder Museum for Black Girls - Boulder, CO
Solo Exhibitions
2023 - Platteforum “Indigo” - Denver, CO
2023 - Odell Brewing “Transitions” - Denver, CO
2023 - Balefire Goods “Aura” - Arvada, CO
2023 - Colorado Academy - Denver. CO
Murals
2021 - Babe Walls Mural Festival - Arvada, CO
2021 - Redline Gallery Mural Project - Denver, CO
2021 - Colfax Canvas Mural Festival - Denver, CO
2021 - Fort Collins Mural Project - Fort Collins, CO
2022 - Lucina Eatery & Bar Mural - Denver, CO
2022 - Sol Bol Smoothies, Aurora, CO
2022 - The Nest Collective - Silverthorn, CO
2022 - Babe Walls Pride Mural Festival - Adams County, CO
2022 - Black Arts Festival - Denver, CO
2022 - Create Cooking School - Denver, CO
2023 - Private Residential Mural - Denver, CO
2023 - Village Farm at Stanley Marketplace - Aurora CO
2023 - Insights Colorado Assessment & Therapy - Denver. CO
2023 - Streetwise Arts - Boulder, CO
2024 - Xiquita Restaurante y Bar - Denver, CO
2024 - Denver Walls Mural Festival - Denver, CO
2025 - Milltown Foundation Mural - Pittsfield, MA
Residencies
Non-conforming Spaces - Platteforum - November 2022 - January 2023 - Denver, CO
Art District on Santa Fe - August 2023 - November 2023 - Denver, CO
Artist in Residence - Colorado Academy - October 2023 - Denver, CO