Tatiana K

Tatiana Kitchen, age 25, is a visual artist from Jacksonville, FL, and Douglas Anderson School of the Arts alumni. Her works feature a vibrant palette of colors, shapes, and seemingly otherworldly beings. With acrylic paint being her medium of choice, she has developed what she considers to be an art style emanating divine femininity, with the majority of her art being inspired by the life forces of the universe and the contributions and influence of humanity within that system. She also aims to illustrate transformation on multiple levels, relating to the human experience.

Tatiana believes art to be her saving grace. As a person with a physical disability, she feels as though being able to focus on the development of her artistic skills has been one of the main things that have kept her optimistic. Instead of allowing herself to become immersed in the limitations that her disability could have possibly set for her, she has instead become immersed in all of the possibilities and opportunities her art has brought, and in turn, has allowed her passion and character to define who she is.

Tatiana has exhibited art in Connecticut, Tallahassee and Miami, FL during Art Basel, an internationally acclaimed art fair. As well as collaborating on a mural within the Wynwood district of Miami. She has also sold a multitude of original paintings to private collectors throughout the US and is currently developing her skills as a muralist with a growing number of murals throughout her hometown.

Tatiana is a visual artist that often explores the idea of divine femininity within her work. Using many different perspectives, she creates a world that highlights black women in their fullness, where they are to be seen and admired. Throughout this artist's body of work are images of her muses, often depicted with beautiful hues of blue and purple skin tones, symbolizing the infinite and immeasurable, as to give the viewer a sense of their godliness and power. Though they may look fantastical, they are not imaginary beings, they are symbolic of real women in the artist's life and women in general. These are women that have inspired, motivated, and worked hard to leave a legacy. Her work captures this, leaving her own legacy in return.

Shonna McDaniels

The Artist Shonna McDaniels is the Founder and Director of the Sojourner Truth Art Museum (founded in 1996). McDaniels is a professional artist/teacher/muralist and community activist, she has an extensive background in art instruction and mural designs. She has studied under some of the finest professors in the Los Rios Community College network and master artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. While residing in Germany, McDaniels instructed art classes for two years on military bases as well as organizing art exhibitions and programs.
Prior to 1996, Shonna McDaniels was one of the co-founders and artist of the Visual Arts Development Project (founded in 1988), McDaniels taught art classes, conducted workshops, and organized art exhibits throughout the Oak Park and Del Paso communities. She has donated art to various organizations as well as helped raise money for charitable causes throughout the Sacramento Region.
She has over 25 years of community involvement, with various organizations that support the arts through exhibition, artist residences, community activism, community murals, and organizing community-based festivals in South Sacramento.

For this project statement, Shonna McDaniels chose the title, Black Lives Mattered than and Black Lives Matters now. Her project depicts the essence, strength, beauty, and power of the Black woman. Ultimately, Shonna reaffirms, the Black Woman Is God!

Isis Fields

Isis Fields is a budding Oakland based artist. She is interested in various creative expressions of self such as; dance, photography, and drawing, however creating multimedia pieces is her favorite. Nature, the stars, and spirit inspire her to create artwork through abstract thought. Her vision is to continue to create ethereal pieces that reflect a collective consciousness.

Isis Fields created both of the two multimedia pieces, "Cosmic Downloads" and "The High Priestess" with the intention to show her dedication to the process and love of color! Her artistic journey is young, but she is eager towards finding ways to motivated stay excited.

Kweli Kitwana

Kweli holds an Associate of Studio Art, School of Art + Design at Montgomery College, Maryland. She serves as a Teaching Artist with the Museum of Children's Art in Oakland, and Youth Spirit Artworks in Berkeley. Her preferred media include fiber art, surface design, and mixed media. As a "green artist," most of her work is created using found or upcycled canvas and materials. Kweli is also the owner of Movement Insight, LLC, consulting firm which provides strategic planning and leadership development for community organizations and activist. She is a nationally-recognized professional activist and social justice facilitator and trainer.

SHEltereD In pLace RESISTance aRt, by kWeli KiTWaNa. (c) 2020
These works have been created during shelter in place; and, the recent Anti-Black justice protest. Kweli primarily working through her thoughts about Black Ppl and our rightful existence and unapologetic resistance. Black people are, especially our Ancestors, Elders, and Children, a PEOPLE who have nothing to prove-and, only demand our "RIGHT-FULL" place in the world as contributors and believers. We ask for nothing to be handed to us, accept a cleared path to carry on our business of living our lives. All of this art is natural fibers, recycled finds, and altered materials. The figures in the work, are tiny symbols of "statues" who are keepers and the pollinators of historical Truth. Each one made from a metal-infused paperclip, patina from weeks buried in the soil of the Ohlone land. Kweli is using hand-dyed fibers in indigo, representing the undeniable power of currency over people, hence the enslavement of Africans. The red dye (madder root) is a representation of Black people's suffering, resistance, and determination.
Much of the beads highlight adornment and grace. Also, the appropriating, mimicking, and the fascination of POC's culture and rituals.

Ebony Iman Dallas

Ebony Iman Dallas is a fifth-generation Oklahoman, second-generation Somali-American. She is an artist, writer, and founder of Afrikanation Artists Organization (AAO).

Ebony received her BA Journalism Advertising and Arts degree from the University of Central Oklahoma and her MFA Design degree from California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Her thesis titled "Painted Bridges" explored ways to unify the African American, Afro Caribbean, and continental Africans through art and design for community activism. As a result, Afrikanation Artists Organization was founded as a non-profit, NGO based Hargeisa, Somaliland, and a 501(c)3 in the United States.

Ebony’s work has exhibited extensively in the United States and Somaliland, Somalia in group and solo exhibitions. Her artwork was included in Food Network’s "Restaurant Impossible" renovation of Urban Roots in Oklahoma and she was a featured artist in the Romare Bearden Centennial Celebration in New York. Her work can be found at The Hargeisa Cultural Center, Joyce Gordon Gallery, and private collections in Namibia, Somaliland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Ebony is a proud graduate of the Oklahoma Arts Council’s Leadership Arts program and ArtistINC.

The pieces submitted are meant to empower and inspire while sharing the God within.

Nichole Washington

Nichole Washington is a mixed media artist working and living in New York. In 2016 she graduated from the School of Visual Arts where she earned a master’s degree in digital photography. Nichole’s work is featured in the inaugural issue of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora. She has created art for popular organizations and programming such as InsecureHBO, Black Girls Code, and Refinery29. Nichole has led hands-on workshops at Casita Maria, Vibe Theatre, and Lower East Side Girls Club.

Nichole Washington uses photography, paint, and design to create bold and expressive images that are an exploration of feminine strength, identity, and spirituality. Her work centralizes superheroine characters that exist in an imagined space meant for healing and transformation. She is inspired by narratives from dreams, meditations, and personal challenges. By combing her photography with paint she is able to blend the lines between reality and fantasy. The work features unique symbols created as a secret form of communication and protection. Each symbol has meaning but they are meant to be meditated upon rather than defined. Nichole hopes to persuade viewers to look beyond the surface and have an introspective experience with the work.

KT Infinite Art

KT enjoys a variety of media including graphic art, oil paint and jewelry design. The infinite nature of art compels her. Influenced by meditative visions and intuitive drawings, KT's work reflects the Spirit and subconscious mind. She is continuously working on and through a personal visual vocabulary while moving toward a shared communal one. The ideas that interest her are sacred and infinite beauty, adaptations of belief systems, and expressions of sex and love.

KT's artwork often explores the ideas of spirituality, sexuality and identity. The Black Divine Feminine is a major theme in this selection. The first images and concepts of the divine/god were depictions of Black women. KT's artwork not only highlights the divine as a Black feminine presence but it also shows the inherent archetypal divinity of Black women.

Stacy Mootoo

A Bay Area transplant, Stacy was originally born in Trinidad. In her early years, she was raised by her grandmother and grew up in a close-knit family. Her initial interest in art was heavily influenced by one of her older cousins. With much admiration, she would spend endless hours practicing and recreating drawings he had created. Self-taught, Stacy draws her inspiration and techniques from her surroundings and is always experimenting with new mediums and techniques eventually adding her own style. From pencil to ink, etching, quilling, paper cut and now paper sculpture, Stacy continues to evolve always welcoming new ideas and influences.

The BLACK woman gives birth to kings and queens, faces countless adversities daily carries herself with pride, conveying strength with the ability to transform herself to survive in any situation. The pose/posture and expression found on the subject’s face shows strength and pride. In ancient Egypt, the cobra was a symbol deity of divine authority, royalty, and sovereignty and was often found on the crowns of their gods and pharaohs. The lotus flowers are a symbol of creation and rebirth and are depicted in different stages of bloom.