Check Out Ayanna Clark’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ayanna Clark.

Hi Ayanna, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Today, I’m an artist, illustrator, author, songwriter, and creative entrepreneur. My work has expanded into children’s book illustration, book and cover design, publishing support, and helping independent authors turn ideas that may have lived in their heads for years into actual books. At the same time, I’ve continued developing my own stories and artwork, particularly projects centered on Black women and children.

More recently, I’ve also started writing music. Songwriting has given me another way to tell stories and express things that sometimes don’t fit neatly onto a canvas or into a book. Much like my writing and artwork, my songs explore real experiences: love, heartbreak, healing, faith, self-worth, boundaries, and learning who you are after life changes you.

One of the biggest changes in me has been allowing myself to explore creatively without feeling like I have to fit into one box. I’m an illustrator, but I’m also a writer. I’m a songwriter. I’m a storyteller. I’m a designer. I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve learned that those things don’t compete with one another. They’re simply different languages I use to tell stories.

I’m still building, still learning, and still figuring out exactly where this journey will take me. But I’m much clearer about my purpose than I was when I started. Whether it’s through an illustration, a children’s book, a novel, or a song, I want the work I leave behind to make someone feel seen, understood, or a little less alone. And especially for Black children, I want my work to remind them that there is no story, adventure, or dream in which they don’t belong.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. One of the biggest changes came when I was laid off after 18 years with Spectrum. When you’ve spent nearly two decades with a company, you naturally build a certain amount of security around the idea that it will continue to be there. Suddenly, I had to figure out what came next.

As difficult as that transition was, it also forced me to look at my creative work differently. Art had always been something I loved and pursued alongside my career, but I began asking myself what it would look like to take my creativity more seriously and build something of my own.

At the same time, the illustration industry itself was changing. The rapid growth of AI-generated artwork has had a very real impact on opportunities for illustrators, particularly those of us who work with independent authors. Many indie authors are working with limited budgets, and when they can generate an image for a fraction of what it costs to hire an illustrator, I understand why that option can be appealing. Finances are difficult for everyone right now, and publishing a book independently is already expensive.

But understanding it doesn’t mean it hasn’t been challenging. As an artist, you’re competing with something that can produce an image in seconds, so I’ve had to think more deeply about what I offer that technology cannot replace. For me, that’s the human part of storytelling: understanding an author’s vision, developing characters with intention, creating consistency throughout a story, collaborating, and bringing my own experiences and perspective to the work.

It has also pushed me not to put all of my creativity into one basket. I illustrate, but I also write books, design, help independent authors navigate publishing, and more recently, I’ve begun writing songs. Instead of seeing myself as someone who has to survive solely by selling illustrations, I’m building a creative life around storytelling in several different forms.

I think both experiences, losing a career I had for 18 years and watching technology disrupt another path I was pursuing, taught me the same lesson: security and opportunity can change very quickly, but my ability to create belongs to me. I can adapt, learn, pivot, and find another way to tell the story.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At my core, I’m a storyteller. Sometimes the story comes through an illustration, sometimes through a children’s book or novel, and more recently, through a song. I’ve stopped feeling like I have to choose just one creative title because all of those things are different ways I communicate.

As an illustrator, I specialize in creating diverse characters, particularly Black children, and putting them in stories where they get to simply exist, dream, explore, imagine, and have adventures. Representation is important to me, but I don’t believe every story featuring a Black child has to be about being Black. Sometimes she can just be the little girl looking through a telescope and discovering the stars. She can be afraid of learning to swim and find her courage. She can be a princess, an astronaut, an adventurer, or anything else her imagination allows.

I also work with independent authors to help bring their stories from an idea to a finished book. My work can include illustration, cover design, interior formatting, and guidance through the self-publishing process. One of my favorite parts of that work is seeing someone hold a book that once existed only in their imagination.

My own writing has expanded as well. I write children’s stories and fiction for adults, and recently I began turning some of my poetry and personal writing into songs. Songwriting surprised me because it gave me another creative language. I can take an emotion or experience that might become several pages in a novel and capture it in a few minutes of music.

What I’m most proud of isn’t one particular project. I’m proud that I continue to create and reinvent myself. For a long time, I thought being a “real” creative meant choosing one thing and becoming known for it. I don’t believe that anymore.

What sets me apart is that I’m not creating from one lane. I bring the perspective of an artist, writer, designer, and now songwriter to everything I make. I understand both the visual and emotional sides of storytelling, and I care deeply about the person on the other side of the work.

Ultimately, whether someone sees themselves in one of my illustrations, finally holds the book they dreamed about writing, reads something I’ve written and thinks, “That sounds like me,” or hears one of my songs and feels understood, I want my work to create connection. That’s what I want to be known for: making people feel seen.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up, I was quiet, timid, and definitely a watcher. I was the kid who could sit back and observe everything happening around me without necessarily saying much. I noticed people, their personalities, their expressions, the way they interacted with each other, and probably a lot of things adults didn’t realize I was paying attention to.

I also had a big imagination. Being quiet didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot going on in my head. I loved art, drawing, stories, television, movies, and anything that allowed me to escape into another world. I think creativity became a safe place for me to express things I wasn’t always comfortable saying out loud.

Looking back, I can see how much that little girl is still a part of the creative I am today. Illustrating requires me to notice the little details that make a character feel alive. Writing requires me to pay attention to how people speak, love, hurt, hide things, and interact with one another. Even songwriting comes from observing emotions and finding words for feelings people sometimes have difficulty expressing.

I’m certainly not as timid as I was growing up, but I’m still a watcher. The difference is that now I take the things I see, feel, and imagine and turn them into art, stories, characters, and songs.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ayannasclarkillustrates
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ayannasclarkillustrations
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ayannasclark?si=VpTkavcuQRaw25B2