Bio

Precious Diamond B. (she/her) is a visual journalist, community herbalist, arts administrator, and creative synthesizer living in Philadelphia, PA. She collaborates with arts, education, design, and cultural practitioners to lead workshops, curate conversations, and co-develop projects that combine her passion for journalism, illustration, and holistic wellness.

For ten years Precious was based in Baltimore, MD cultivating her artist practice and arts administration journey after graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and a concentration in Printmaking. Her creative practice blossomed with her visual journalism senior thesis Creatives of Color, a research project that collected the stories of Baltimore arts and arts administration innovators through type and illustration. In 2020 she expanded her artistic vision with Celestial Beings, an archiving project that charted the intergenerational journeys of five Black femmes who engage in spiritual practice as a healing art. As an arts administrator dedicated to the liberatory self-determination of Black and Brown creatives, she has held several leadership positions in development, communications, advocacy, arts education programming, grantmaking, and operations at local, statewide, and national arts organizations.

In addition to her personal creative work and arts administration practice, Precious partners with nonprofits, publications, organizations, and artists to create site or topic specific illustrative pieces, launch arts-based initiatives and/or conduct research projects. Collaborators have included the Maryland Institute College of Art, Refugee Youth Project, HYRSTERIA Zine, Towson University, Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, National Assembly for State Arts Agencies, Arts Aspire Consulting, Maryland State Department of Education’s Fine Arts Office, Arts Education in Maryland Schools, Afro Charities, Inc., and Black Womxn Flourish.

Creative Philosophy

My work is a collection of moments that combine fantastical deferred dreams with lived reality. Taking visual journalism as a concept and into an artistic mode of working, the illustrations I create reflect my inquisitive nature, keen listening, and visual interpretation of history. The people I feature in my work are brought from margin to center, standing tall on the illustrated stage built just for them. In the end, there is a permanent artifact cementing their experiences that cannot be erased from the history books.

The portraits and patterns I create bend visual space and typography while honoring storytellers. Listening to the people and environments they live in take the form of on-site drawings, monoprints, relief linocuts, handwritten type, and digital collage. My work contextualizes the physical and metaphorical spaces I experience and interprets them through colorful reimaginings.

Resume available upon request.