Mayanthi Jayawardena

Mayanthi, the founder of Serendib Creative LLC is a proud Sri Lankan - American painter, muralist, children's book illustrator, clothing designer, and photographer. Mayanthi's art has been featured both nationally and internationally. Her art is an expression of her healing, culture, and her hope to empower others. "I believe that art can change this world and I hope that my art can play a part in that." - Mayanthi

Meet the Artist

Mayanthi started her artist journey two years ago. Prior to founding Serendib Creative LLC, she worked in sexual violence prevention for over 9 years working in higher education, organizing national conferences, and working with national leaders in the field such as Tarana Burke. Mayanthi found herself turning to art for self-care during such a taxing job. Throughout all of her work, Mayanthi found that creativity was one of her favorite tools. The fulfillment that she found in art eventually empowered her to transition to art full-time, though her advocacy for sexual violence prevention and women's empowerment has never stopped.

Being in quarantine has been very challenging but also very empowering. During the pandemic Mayanthi had the opportunity to help animate an award winning short film called "Can I Have a Mask?". This film was featured in the NFMLA Film Festival in Los Angeles. This was certainly one of the most fulfilling and powerful projects of the pandemic for her. At the beginning of the pandemic, Mayanthi's art also won Raleigh Art's Quarantine Artist Call. The winning pieces were an ode to the burden and the beauty of what health care workers experienced during the pandemic.

Throughout the pandemic Mayanthi also channeled her creative energy into murals. In September 2021, Mayanthi's mural journey was featured in Raleigh Magazine describing her as having a "Mural Moment" drawing attention to her murals all throughout the Triangle Area. Most recently, Mayanthi partnered with Raleigh Arts alongside nine other phenomenal artists to enhance Raleigh's bus stations to celebrate Raleigh's important history and ever growing community. This project will be unveiled in 2022. As a digital illustrator, Mayanthi also illustrates children's books, creates custom portraits, designs logos, websites and recently, has transformed her digital art into clothing as she is launching her new apparel line in 2022.

Mayanthi's art is an ode to women and an ode to her heritage as a Sri Lankan. Being an immigrant and being a Sri Lankan is something that is hauntingly beautiful; some days more haunting, and some days more beautiful. Many of her pieces celebrate the beauty and power of being a woman, many of them express her Sri Lankan pride and pain, and others share a world of beauty, color, and life through her eyes. Mayanthi's creativity has no bounds and she is excited to see where it takes her next.