The Observer - 2025 - Digital Illustration
Black History Month Reader - 2024 - Digital Illustration
The Inquisitor - 2025 - Digital Illustration
Jacqui C. Smith is a Chicago suburb-based illustrator, multidisciplinary artist, and creative leader whose work explores the beauty, identity, emotional complexity, and versatility of Black women and girls. Rooted in themes of healing, self-discovery, vulnerability, and representation, her practice creates space for reflection, empowerment, and emotional connection through visual storytelling. Originally from the south suburbs of Chicago, she holds a B.A. in Traditional Animation from Columbia College Chicago. Her creative journey began in Burbank, where she launched her freelance career focused on uplifting communities through art.
Driven by the belief that representation matters, Jacqui creates bold, emotionally resonant work that reflects the richness and complexity of Black girlhood and womanhood across the diaspora. Her evolving multidisciplinary practice spans acrylic painting, illustration, sculpture, ink work, fiber, and wood-based mixed media. Through her forthcoming body of work, Unmasking, she investigates transformation, emotional awareness, identity, Black joy, autism and self-understanding, reconnection to nature, and healing through vulnerability. The work examines the layers people carry socially, emotionally, and culturally, while inviting viewers to reconnect with their own truth.
Jacqui has illustrated over 25 children’s books and designed 60 murals in Walmarts across 23 states, using public art to make representation visible in everyday spaces. She has also contributed artwork and creative services to brands and organizations, including Disney, YWCA, Scholastic UK, Harlequin, and Penguin Books, lending her visual voice to campaigns, publications, and media globally.
In 2025, Jacqui became General Manager of WOW Gallery in Seattle, helping lead arts programming, exhibitions, and community engagement centered on uplifting Black women and girls. She also became the first artist-in-residence at WOW Healing Villa in Johannesburg during the Winter 2025–2026 season.
In addition to her illustration and mural work, Jacqui is the author of four empowering coloring books, including Know Yourself: A Coloring Book for Girls (& Women), which centers on positive self-identity and mental wellness. She also designed the “Beautiful Skin” beer can for Brewyard Beer Company in Glendale, supporting the Glendale/Pasadena YWCA and women of color-owned businesses. In 2017, she co-founded the Annual Brewyard Art Festival to showcase local talent and foster connection through the arts.
Jacqui’s work has been featured in LA Weekly, Voyage LA, Shoutout LA, and Hopped LA. Through every medium she explores, she remains committed to creating meaningful work that inspires healing, visibility, and liberation while encouraging communities that have long been overlooked to feel seen, valued, and empowered.