About Water Stories
“Water Stories is essentially marking the overcoming of adversity. It’s meditation on how emotion moves through the body, history, and generational trauma. Colour, motion, and pattern. What lies beneath is curious. We are special and yet I hope to highlight the oxymoron of being deeply alike to everyone else. The Manta ray is a repeating theme throughout, and a particularly powerful symbol to me, with the most wonderful shape language, memory, flow, grace, endurance, joy with slow and meaningful movement. Each piece translates emotion, allowing sadness and joy to coexist in luminous balance.
This collection started in January 2025 with a single image. Truly, it started years before, through sketches, studies and ponderings. The series is currently in progress.
Water is special to me for many reasons, which I communicate through this work. I know there are some things I think I will never be able to say, without it. These works are confession, sadness and celebration; a deeper story I am now telling.”
About Karlee Hankin
Karlee Hankin is a dedicated creative with a deep passion for storytelling, visual craft, and the magic of art, communication and stories. She studied fashion design and illustration at the University of West London before beginning her career in marketing, graphic design and branding, contributing to the launch and development of emerging brands and start-ups.
Over four years, she founded and developed Treasure Studios - a luxury event and branding design business merging grahpic design and fine art - leading its creative direction and building a distinctive visual identity.
As her career evolved, Karlee gravitated toward illustration and character-driven work, creating for games, books, patterns and stationery. Between 2020 and 2025, she produced an extensive body of work in medical illustration, combining technical precision with strong narrative clarity.
Alongside her commercial practice, she has a dedicated fine art practice. She continues to pursue both fine art and illustration, and is available for commissions and freelance collaborations.
