Connect What is your favorite type of art to create?

I really enjoy painting. Growing up in Zambia, our art and culture are very much so intertwined, and my earliest experience was painting imaginary characters with my late aunt. I definitely kept that love for painting long after I left my country to come to the US to pursue a degree in the arts. I paint what my words cannot align with. The feeling of being disconnected from your home but aligned to your future identity, or articulating what it means to become an adult in the diaspora.

Where do you find inspiration?

My culture remains the overarching core of my inspiration, but what really drives my oeuvres are the experiences (both good and bad) I have had growing up alone in the diaspora. Having to be my own therapist, father, mother, sibling and friend, whilst trying to navigate new cultures, higher education and adulting, painting allows me to see myself for me and create these intense pieces where I try to fish out the person I want to become.

What would you do with $25,000?

If I were given the opportunity to win this $25,000, I would use it to pay off the rest of my university education ($3,500) as well as solidify my practice as I approach the end of my university life. It will give me the foundation that I need to create my two desired series, Dear Diary and African Regality, as my official entrance into the creative-corporate world. Lastly, with the remaining balance I will be able to rent out a studio space so that I never have to stop making art.