The Ohio Artist Registry (OAR) is an exciting opportunity for artists to share their work, connect with the creative community, and establish an online presence—all on a free, virtual platform! The OAR encourages artists working in all art forms, throughout Ohio and beyond, to create a profile, which allows them to better promote themselves and their work. Being listed in the OAR provides artists with new opportunities to share their work with clients, galleries, patrons, and audiences. A listing in the OAR does not confer an endorsement, approval, or verification by the Ohio Arts Council.
For more information, contact Kathy Signorino, artist programs director, at kathy.signorino@oac.ohio.gov or 614-728-6140.
2025 Ohio Artist Registry Juried Exhibition
Dorrian A Hawkins
Bedford Heights Ohio 44146 United States Home Phone: 2169249711 Website: Dorrian’s Portfolio
Bio
Dorrian A. Hawkins (b. 1993, Cleveland Ohio) is a contemporary storyboard artist, writer and photographer based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Hawkins explores the fantastic and the subtilties of everyday life through writing, drawing, and photography. Based in Cleveland—where he returned with his family in 2008 after years of moving—Hawkins draws from personal history, the city, and community to reflect on American life. A graduate of the Cleveland School of the Arts and later Cleveland State as an English major, he brings nuance, fantasy, and a sense of universal familiarity to themes of race, class, identity, and memory. His work dwells in both difficulty and tenderness, always grounded in necessity.
Hawkins’ dedication to art is specific to craft and understanding art on an individual level. He has love for for in depth storyboards, writing projects and photo documentation.
His photographs have been commissioned for weddings, events, model shoots, company head shots and product photography.
Hawkins’s photographs have appeared in a solo exhibition, On East Cleveland, in 2024 in Cleveland. He is currently working on a space comic script and storyboards for another personal project. He is also shooting for and editing a, as of now, 3-year body of work on the city of East Cleveland.
Artist Statement
My artistic philosophy is connected to the “pulls” we experience throughout the day—moments that present opportunities to engage with the world artistically. When I react to these pulls, I feel, a piece of me is communicated in my work. The process is less about conscious control and more about honest engagement. The more truthful I am in these moments, the more authentic and powerful the outcome. When working this way, I find I have no control over whether the work reflects my identity— a black man, artist, raised by a single mother, or the other facets of my life– these elements naturally permeate my work. When others see my art, I hope they recognize a touch of the universal, as I feel we are all going through something similar-life. I work to make art that makes me feel connected to my life, and makes me smile. I hope to warm the heart of my audience, and show that tears shed fall into an ocean created by all of us.