Karlie Thornton is an artist from St. Louis. She moved to Chicago in 2015 to pursue a degree at DePaul for Advertising as a community service scholar. Karlie became heavily influenced by the city which challenged her to explore new mediums of self-expression. At 19, she created her own events company, fell in love with design and fine art and has worked with companies such as Nike, Red Bull and Party Noire as an art director, designer, installation artist and producer.

Today, she amplifies communities of color through froSkate, an organization starting movements for queer and femme skateboarders. Within the past year, froSkate has taken skate culture by storm: hosting programming that fosters self-betterment through physical activity, community building and mental health awareness. The impact of the group has caught the attention of various sports brands and press, even landing them on the cover of the Chicago Red Eye in October.

Karlie always strives to bring her real-world experiences and passions into creative concepting rooms, creating meaningful work that adds true value to consumers lives, and to the greater good of society.