What are you up to today?
I'm a visual artist, and my collective has a shop — it's called Shop Maater. Right now one of my friends is setting up for a screening of her film that she's doing tonight for Art Murmur. I was visiting my other friend Sarah who works at Burnt Oak Gallery, and they're setting up some artwork right now for a show with 12 female artists. They're having an opening at the shop down here tonight, so I was popping in to say hey.
Yeah I've noticed that a bunch of galleries popped up here!
Yeah, 15th Street — we usually have Second Saturday events, but everyone's starting to do First Friday stuff too.
So, your primary occupation is Visual Artist?
Yeah, I also do some teaching; I'm a muralist and an illustrator. Right now the collective runs the shop together, so today's my day of working in the shop. I'm just taking care of shop business hours, maintenance, and stuff like that.
How did you start out as an illustrator?
I have always been crafty. My family is crafty. When I was young, like in the 7th grade, they put me in an art school. They [let us] dabble in all kinds of stuff and I just picked drawing and art. It just came about that way. I guess I've always been a really bold illustrator, and person that likes to use line a lot, so it makes a lot of sense to do really big paintings or really intricate drawings.
What's an interesting project you've worked on lately?
Right now I'm working with my collective for [the] "You Gods" project. It's an art show focusing on the divinity of the inner self — the inner god in all of us — through different mediums. It's expressed through the lens of a woman of color, person of color. There's a lot of photography, there's also going to be a lot of nudes, it's gonna be really cool. It's going to be at Krowswork Gallery in July so it'll be going on during July Art Murmur, so next First Friday you can catch us there. We'll have stuff in the shop that highlights things that are going on in the show, but we'll also be there with our full glory of artwork. 
What do you like most about being in Oakland?
My favorite thing about Oakland is being able to hang out and find so many people that are creatively like-minded, and all part of the same web of conversation. It's pretty seamless. Community is really heavy here, and it's nice to see community wherever I go.
Anything caught your interest recently?
MoAD is having a really cool exhibit right now. It's got Mickalene Thomas' exhibition — she re-did her installation [from] the '70s, and I really like that piece. Also Wangechi Mutu did an installation sculpture, and a whole bunch of other painters and photographers have pieces on loan from SFMOMA at MoAD, and I really liked it — it was a good show. I connected with it. It's really cool to see a show at a museum that reflects me and the people I know in my community and our type of work. Aside from that, the East Bay Express just did a really cool write-up. The included Shop Maater, but they did a cool write-up on Black artists in the East Bay, (where to find them, what they're doing). I think it's really cool that there's a whole issue of East Bay Express devoted to people in the Bay and their work and things of that nature in the Black realm.
I also wanted to ask you about your personal style — how did everything come about? That's an interesting necklace you have on!
This is from the Ivory Coast, one of my friends bought this for me at the MoAD exhibit. They had them there — it's a little pendant. This ring is actually a friend's piece, she left it at my house and I was like, I'm going to keep this! This hand chain I got at an Oakland festival from this woman that does intricate pieces, and then these pieces I just got from the Ashby BART. Me and one of my good friends have the same ring and the same bracelet, so they're just matching. This ring has multiple meanings, but mostly it's a symbol of godliness and inner divinity so that's why I wear it. My friend made these crystal earrings — it's good to have the energy with you.
And the rest of the outfit is fun too! Love the colorful shirt and the shoes!
The shirt I got from a thrift store, and these shoes were actually given to me.
