Paris Woodhull received her BFA in 2D art with a concentration in Painting & Drawing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2017. The Knoxville native’s business, Paris Woodhull Illustrations, thrives on client-based work. Well-known for her map-making skills, Woodhull spends the majority of her time creating personalized maps for her clients.

When Woodhull started her first business, she was a senior studying Painting and Drawing at the UT School of Art, working to develop her portfolio, and feeling the impact of the radical feminism passed down to her from her suffragist ancestor. (Her great, great, great grandmother was the first woman to run for President of the United States.)

“I never meant to start a business,” she insists, but “I just was doing what I love, art and making people proud of our little city [Knoxville].” From an assignment to draw a map for a wedding invitation at an internship, she became beguiled with making illustrated maps, and with a few clicks on social media and lots of drawing, erasing, and drawing again, she became the owner and illustrator of Woodhull Illustrations. “I’m just trying to be as fearlessly creative as possible and speak my truth through art. I want to create social change, even if it’s small and I’ll work hard as hell at it.”

Woodhull lives by three principles. 1. Do what you love. In other words, be all in. 2. Don’t get hung up on the little things. Focus on what’s important. 3. Make a living. Create a sustainable life.