I am ALL about uplifting fellow artists. From the time I was little, my mom would hang black art all over our Jackson home in addition to stashing an unimaginable amount of All God’s Children on every shelf! Hence, the respect of artistry has been ingrained in me and I grew to love it even more after moving to New York. Between the typically talented NYU Tischies and the numerous black art galleries I’ve attended, I’ve definitely had several opportunities to observe some fabulous visual mantras. It would be an understatement to say that I have met talented artists; these painters, sculptors, and drawers are truly redefining their craft and what the definition of being an artist is. I think you all should meet someone, so you can understand what I’m talking about (I know some of you already think I’m crazy!). In addition, you know NYU is an “artsy-fartsy” school, so you had to see this post coming.
Every year, NYU’s African Heritage Month Executive Board Committee plans several events during the month of February with the purpose of spreading awareness about the different aspects of black culture. Often, the black race is stereotyped into one culture when in fact so many different ethnicities make it up. Our race is one of the most diverse with African-Americans, Haitians, Jamaicans, Afro-Dominicans, etc. (I won’t go into this though because I can do a whole post on race alone.) However, getting back to our events, one of the programs we hosted was entitled “An Art Affair with Hip Hop.” Indeed, I had the pleasure of meeting this fabulous, young New York painter named Demostina who is a truly educated artist. She completed her B.A. in Illustration & Design at Parsons School of Design but, on the more interesting tip, (sorry I’m a biased future alum) she attained her M.A. in Art Education from NYU! She’s currently a practicing professional artist and art educator. I wanted to decorate my entire dorm room, also known as a shared closed space between 3 women, with her paintings. And, keeping it real, if I wasn’t on that broke student budget, I would have definitely bought some of her paintings because her stuff is outrageously unique. Unfortunately, it came down to Spring Break in Puerto Rico versus a BEAUTIFUL painting that did not belong on my project-looking dorm room wall! Nevertheless, I wanted to give her a shout out and link everyone to her web site because she is amazingly talented.
