Mattie Sterling, an activist figurative painter based in Savannah, Georgia, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Functioning as a feminist, activist, writer, and painter, Sterling dedicates her life's work to gender equality. She utilizes her lifestyle and art to challenge heterosexist tyranny and hierarchical traditions, advocating for positive social change within women's civil and identity politics, empowerment, and sexuality.

Sterling serves as the Membership Chair of the Women's Caucus for Art and the Chair of the Young Women’s Caucus for Art. She consistently explores the female figure and the emancipation of women's sexuality through exhibitions, publications, feminist writing, and ongoing conversations around sex positivity.

Her recent body of work expands her long-standing focus on the female figure to include explorations of kink, femme identity, and sexuality through the lens of the female gaze. Drawing on both the lived experiences of her models and her own perspective as a pansexual woman, Sterling’s paintings confront the historical and ongoing erasure of gender fluidity and queer desire within Western visual culture. By reclaiming the language of legal pornography and erotica, her work challenges patriarchal narratives and offers a space where femme and queer identities are centered, empowered, and redefined.