Meet Miriam King, Ashley Martin, and Christina Navarro | Artists, Curators and Collaborators

We had the good fortune of connecting with Miriam King, Ashley Martin and Christina Navarro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Alright, so let’s jump right in! The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love, and encouragement of others. So is there a person, group, organization, book, etc. that you want to dedicate your shoutout to? Who else deserves a little credit and recognition in your story?
Ashley: I would say my parents and their hearts, how their love has shaped mine and the way I choose to move in the world.

Miriam: This one’s for my grandmother, Bunny, aka Nana, who was a jazz nightclub singer in New York and taught me everything I know about being your most visible self. Her presence, her boldness, and her ability to command a room with soul and grace have shaped me in ways I’m still discovering.Thank you Nana for showing me how to live out loud.

Christina: I want to say my Mom. She and I are just as different as we are alike. She hasn’t always understood my art, but she has always fiercely supported it. And that means the world to me.

Please tell us more about your art. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally? Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way? What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
Ashley: My practice is rooted in a deep respect for the body, for color, and for the emotional weight both can carry. I create work that celebrates Blackness and womanness with intention, clarity, and tenderness. I’m in an exciting chapter of my career right now, where I finally feel in sync with the scale of my vision. My journey has definitely not been easy—far from it—but every part of it has sharpened my focus, clarity, and understanding of myself.

A major turning point was moving to New York to pursue my practice more seriously—selling my work, showing up for myself consistently and chasing what once felt impossible. Eventually, I relocated to Columbus, Ohio, where I started building a creative life that could actually support the scale of my ambition. That move gave me the time and clarity to refine my voice as a painter and commit to the kind of work I wanted to be making.

I would say what sets my work apart is my willingness to dream when I am interacting with color, the specificity in how I want something to feel, and understanding color and form as a way to communicate a moment and capture an emotion. My willingness to dissect and always question the way I see things. The most important lesson I’ve learned is to trust myself—and to know that alone is enough.

Miriam:
Coming from a background in professional ballet and now martial arts, I’ve learned to find space in the margins and to turn discipline into freedom. As a woman, claiming that freedom has come with the responsibility to lift others up.
My work is rooted in creating space for truth, whether that’s joy, pain, or the wild mix of both. I believe beauty can come from expressing even the darkest parts of ourselves, especially when shared with others. It hasn’t been easy, but the journey has taught me that holding space for every kind of story is where real transformation begins.

Christina:
My art is all about transformation. I have always used creation as a means of survival. Emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes even physically. It’s always been a tool for me to alchemize the bigger, more complicated feelings so that the pain doesn’t make a home in me. I started as a dancer, then I moved into acrylic painting, and now I am storytelling through music. Singing and songwriting. I think what sets me apart is that I don’t really have a niche. Not even in my music. I love experimenting with different mediums and learning new methods of creation. I let the art bleed, bruise, blush. I like messy. I love to draw parallels between my life and Shakespeare, mythology, classic literature, and sacred sensuality to build experiences that feel ancient and modern at the same time.

Where I am now still feels very wobbly. I am still uncovering all the things my instrument (my voice) can do. Still discovering what feels good and true. I’ve often felt like an outsider. Too emotional, too sensitive, too quiet. I’ve had to learn how to trust that what sets me apart is also what makes my work authentic and hopefully, unforgettable. I’ve learned that fulfillment, for me, comes from doing the thing I thought I couldn’t. The thing that scared me. What are the people who don’t truly see you telling you to do? Go the other way.

I want the world to know that I’m not trying to be perfect. I’m trying to be real. I make art for the girls who feel “too much.” For the ones who cry every night and still dream. For anyone who’s ever felt small or invisible, and is now learning how to use their voice. Even if it’s hoarse, even if it shakes.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary—say it was a week-long trip. Where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.? In your view, what are some of the most fun, interesting, exciting people, places, or things to check out?
Ashley: Hahahahaha, if my best friend was visiting the area we would probably spend most of our time on my couch catching up on everything, revelling in the time that has passed since we’ve seen each other and all of our memories together. We’ve never needed much to have a good time, our friendship and love for each other has always been enough.

Miriam: We’d start with a morning at Franklin Park Conservatory, wander the biomes, soak up the colors, maybe catch a glassblowing demo. After that, head to Saraga International Grocery to explore the aisles, grab snacks and plan a homemade meal where we catch up on the boring yet exciting parts of interpersonal life. Evenings would rotate between Bottle Shop for quirky cocktails and patio hangs, and Lawbird or Agni when we’re feeling a little fancy, always inventive, always good energy. The whole week would be about discovery and celebrating the in-between spaces.

Christina:
If my best friend were visiting, we would probably visit a lot of coffee shops. Parable, Fox In the Snow. Then we might walk around the Audubon park. For lunch, I would probably take her to Los Agaves Taqueria and then we would most likely spend the rest of the day at my home. Just in the quiet together. We would probably make a bonfire in the yard. Get into some witchy things.

Do you have a favorite quote or affirmation? What does it mean to you?
Christina: “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.” From William Shakespeare’s “Measure For Measure.”

My biggest belief in art and love is that people need to take more risks. I don’t know exactly where it came from but I’ve always been a “why NOT me?” kind of person. Every single time I’ve taken a chance on myself, especially when others didn’t fully understand, I have walked away with amazing stories and powerful growth. As an artist and a human being. The quote reminds me that fear doesn’t protect us. It wastes time. It keeps us small. It keeps us from our truest desires. I’d rather jump boldly into the void than miss out on all the good that could have been mine.

Ashley: I love this quote quite a bit, and its meaning has evolved with me more and more over the past few years. When I think about who I am now, and my process working on Vessels in Red, I return again and again to Ntozake Shange’s words:
“i found God in myself and i loved her / i loved her fiercely.”
As a Black woman, I’ve often felt the pressure to shrink—physically, emotionally, even spiritually to shift and make myself more palatable and more acceptable. Recently, my practice is about turning toward myself, my current and past selves, and focusing on a very intense, intentional love for who I am and everything that has shaped me.

As of late, I’m doing a deep dive into who I am, like the truest version of me. I find myself less worried, less fearful of fully being who I am, looking at all parts of myself and reveling in such intense beauty and love—a deep pride in the person I’ve shaped.

Most of my work is about coming home, to the body as a site of memory and safety. I’m often searching for home, and like my art practice, I realize it lives with me, in my body and in returning to my work. My practice is always something I can come back to, always safe and waiting for me, much like my physical form.
I’d say a lot of my work is about love, compassion, and dare I say tenderness– toward myself and women like me—with a fierceness that refuses to apologize or make itself smaller. To me, that’s where God lives: in the unedited, fully embodied self.

Miriam: “Knowledge is a rumor until it lives in the body” This phrase reflects wisdom deeply rooted in Indigenous and somatic traditions, where learning is understood as lived, embodied, and relational. While popularized in contemporary trauma and embodiment work, the core idea resonates with Indigenous knowledge systems, such as those of the Anishinaabe, Māori, Aboriginal Australian, and Kanaka Maoli peoples, where knowing arises through land, movement, story, and practice. The wording may be modern, but the truth it carries is ancient.

Instagram: @vesselsinred @residualash_ @miriaminmotion @ethe.real.444

Image Credits
Photos by: Dawn Tyler
Photo (dancer in red fabric) by: Aya King

Vessels in Red will be shown at Urban Arts Space Until June 7th, with a closing panel Saturday June 7th, 5-7pm.