Local artist Remy Wharry opens creative studio and retail space for Raw Art acrylic paints

Remy Wharry with painting “My Beloved” at Raw Art Creative Studio // Photo by Ava McCluer

Raw Art Creative Studio is not only named for owner Remy (Abigail) Wharry, but also for her business values: reliability, advocacy, and wellness.

First came Raw Art Paint, the Midwest’s first black and woman-owned paint company. Now, located at 3004 Troost Ave, Kansas City, MO, Wharry has expanded with a studio and retail space. Kansas City’s Open Doors program, which transforms vacant storefronts into active businesses, helped open the studio. Raw Art Creative Studio celebrated its grand opening on June 6.

The two-story storefront used to be storage for Ruby Jean’s Kitchen & Juicery, located in the same building. Now, the space is transformed to act as a workshop and retail space on the ground floor, and as Wharry’s studio upstairs.

Wharry is a self-taught artist, whose work centers around “Afro-American life and beauty,” according to her website.

Photo by Ava McCluer

Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Raw Art Creative Studio will be open for weekly workshops, a free art club on Saturdays, and for shopping prints, bookmarks, DIY paint kits, and of course, Raw Art Paint. The space is also available to reserve for parties.

This studio displayed some of Wharry’s in-progress work, including an example piece for her upcoming Olivia Dean-themed painting event on June 12. Raw Art workshops aren’t just for painters, though. Wharry also hosts craft events throughout the month such as charm bracelet workshops and a bag charm bar.

Photo by Ava McCluer

The largest painting in the space, “My Beloved,” depicts a mother embracing her daughter with a knife in her hand, with another hand holding a lantern seen through a window to the left. The 64 x 60 inch mixed-media piece honors Margaret Garner, who killed her daughter to save her from enslavement. Garner and her family escaped slavery in 1856, but were recaptured by U.S. Marshals before she could kill her other two children. She was sold back into slavery before dying of typhoid fever two years later.

Wharry felt called to paint the piece after visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., where she read about Garner, whose story was the inspiration for Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.” The final embrace between mother and child was loosely based on a picture of her and her daughter, Sage, who was around Garner’s daughter’s age when Wharry painted “My Beloved.” On her website, Wharry explained that Garner’s story “made me think deeply about my ancestry, as well as how I move about life as a mother to my daughter. How do I show up for her? How do I protect her? When should she have autonomy in her own decision-making? Is my parenting enough? Am I doing a good job?”

Wharry hopes “My Beloved” will hang in a museum someday.