Ivy K. Nightingale
Sole-Proprietor from the start;
Ivy K. Nightingale is a multi-disciplinary artist who was born and raised in New York City. She moved to North Texas after graduating from High School and did freelance work as a graphic designer for different graphic and landscaping companies, eventually working on private commissions and creating concept art for indie games and also worked as a part-time colorist for niche comics.
Self-Portrait of Ivy K. Nightingale during 2024
Home-based Permaculture Business;
Eventually Ivy K. Nightingale moved to the west coast of the continent and co-created a home-based plant nursery business for nearly a decade. She learned many skill sets on being self-employed as an urban homesteader and about intensive permaculture principles. She quickly became immersed in learning and practicing perennial forestry and composting with mushrooms and woodchips. She also practiced chicken husbandry, mealworm and vermicomposting farming and horticultural maintenance. With maintaining the different garden beds and fruiting trees and shrubs, she also learned how to preserve; Ivy dried and packaged her own herbal teas and spices, made homemade jams, cultivated her own kombucha and her own sourdough bread.
Electric Strawberry by Ivy K. Nightingale. One of Ivy’s first berry harvests painted in the year 2021
During this time she studied books, academic articles and listened to podcasts on Elain Ingham, a microbiologist and soil food web scientist. She also studied the works of Bill Mollison, an Australian writer, scientist and biologist who coined the term permaculture in 1974. Ivy became well versed on key names and different terminology when it comes to the regenerative agricultural community and sciences.
Reconnecting through Indigenous Studies
However, Ivy’s studies did spark a deep curiosity and longing to reconnect with her indigenous roots, who are known to be master agriculturalists, spiritual scientists and storytellers. During her studies she became aware of how much of the early cited academic works leaves out true indigenous voices and authentic Native American perceptions. Ivy became bothered by how her indigenous existence was still considered extinct or unknown within the modern world, even among people she would consider in proximity to the culture.
This prompted her to start creating paintings and deep dive in research on her Andean and Arawak American origins. The first in a series of reconnection research paintings was “Atabey” the Universal Mother of Sweet Waters in Taino-Arawak spirituality, which opened the flood gates to so much on symbolism and history. She learned about the Global Coralision, a coral restoration project. One project was done in Sousa Bay, Dominican Republic– and their Atabey sculpture was part of that coral reef restoration.
After learning about the Coral Reef project, it lead her down a path of finding great modern teachers of indigenous origins and keepers of truth. Ivy created more paintings the more she learned through academic books, her lived experiences as a child of both Indigenous and European bloodlines, and studying with others who took their ancestral studies seriously.
Atabey; Primordial Waters by Ivy K. Nightingale || The painting is one of the many versions created in the Atabey series as Ivy continued with her studies between regenerative agriculture, Eco-theology, and her indigenous American roots.
UPDATE!!! 11/22/2025: Sosúa councilors approve removal of Atabey’s statue from the beach at the request of churches;
The article was written OCTOBER 5th 2025, Copy pasted from the article link above:
(( Puerto Plata, DR— The Sosúa City Council, in the province of Puerto Plata, unanimously approved the removal of the statue of Atabey during its Tuesday session. The statue, which was placed on the seabed near the beach as a tourist attraction and to help restore the coral reefs, was removed.
The session, chaired by Council President Fausto Santos, welcomed the proposals of priest Johnny Espinal Castillo and Pastor Sebero Cordero Capellán, president of the Federation of Pastors.
The sculpture of Atabey, mother of water, a deity of the Arawak and Taíno cultures from which the island’s first inhabitants originated, was placed in March 2023.
It’s a 16-foot sculpture that serves the purpose of contributing to the recovery of corals in Sosúa Bay, which has been affected for years by pollution and a large amount of waste, in addition to being an attraction for scuba divers.
In its installation by the Maguá Foundation and Global Coralition, it was stated that it seeks to contribute to art, culture, and environmental conservation through the recovery of coral reefs.
Since its installation, it has provoked conflicting opinions among those who believe that, in addition to highlighting Taino culture, the sculpture plays an essential role in the marine environment, and religious sectors that view it as an image for the idolatry of false gods. Who is to say which gods are false? The Taino deity was here first, wasn’t she? Apparently, superstitions die hard.
The municipal ordinance is already sparking debate on social media, with those calling it a demonstration of ignorance and those believing it is a way to remove a foreign element that attracts “ills” to the municipality. ))
We Are Still Here And We Remember;
Eventually someone who watched Ivy’s works on social media suggested Ivy to take part in an art contest that hit many of these interests. Ivy, along with four others won the competition. https://jis.gov.jm/nanny-reimagined-as-protector-of-the-natural-environment/
We Are Still Here And We Remember; painting by Ivy K. Nightingale, aka Ibaya Art.
The project was organized by the Natural History Division of the IOJ, in collaboration with the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT) and the Liberal Studies, Faculty of Arts and Science and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies of New York University (NYU), New York in the United States.
Ivy considered this a major achievement, but could not fully celebrate the win at the time because she was in between unstable living arrangements for the past few years after a chain of life-changing events. She had lost her garden business and her home and was in between uncertain circumstances. So it took some time for her to find her balance. It was a deeply impactful experience that helped her re-define her skill sets as an artist, a steward and as an educator over her special interests; Indigenous Spirituality, Eco-theology, Perennial Forestry, Art and History.
Atabey mug design by Ivy K. Nightingale. Photo taken by the Rocky statue leading toward the Art Museum of Philadelphia.
Ivy’s journey as a modern day indigenous American artist was renewed when she saw the Wampum belt during her visit to the Art Museum of Philadelphia. The ‘Belt of Friendship’ opened her eyes to a different aspect of American history and of her own journey thus far and her wish to continue to spread educational stories through vivid paintings.
The mention of Caribbean slaves struck my curiosity.
Atabey mug design by Ivy K. Nightingale || Oniabo Ibakari = Water is life || Atabey = Drink Her || Ivy was having a glass of water with her proto-type mug at the hotel lobby the morning before she went to visit the art museum.
And what better way to share stories of wisdom through the use of fun illustrations and real photos, because a picture sometimes really is worth more than a thousand words could ever express.