What Motivates You? Finding Inspiration in the Work and Words Of 10 Amazing Black Women Artists: Llanakila.
Often, whether you’re creatively inclined or seeking encouragement to
face your everyday struggles, finding inspiration and the motivation to
see through your artistic vision or are grappling with the battles of
your daily life is can be just as hard as the battle you’re trying to
overcome. Lately, in dealing with these hardships myself, I turned to
the work of some of my favourite black women artists, and, intrigued by
what fuels their passion to share their talents, went one step further
and spoke to some of them about what keeps them going.
Victoria, a visual artist, Penn State printmaking Bachelor’s degree holder, and overall creative spirit who uses the art moniker
Llanakila (la-na-key-luh) - Hawaiian for ‘Victorious’, a reference to her first name, does it all. She creates paintings, digital art, writes poetry, is a photographer, and a whole more.
“My
creativity comes from a long line of creative individuals in my family
that I feel is the highest blessing. A lot of my work is about love,
self-love, heartbreaking love, intense love, spiritual love, the
infinite ranges of love. I’m really inspired by music, lines, colors,
emotions, and my experiences as a Brownskin woman.”
This whole sequence of events took place in less than 10 seconds. Reflexes, fuck you.
There’s a short, but in this case crucial moment, between wiping your ass and dropping the paper in the toilet bowl.
As I was wiping my ass, I sneezed. A slimy drop of snot landed on my upper lip and instinctively I put the paper I was holding, on my nose to wipe it off. My body’s way of saying “WTF bro, you put shit on your nose” was instant puking, which landed on my hands and in my lap. Now, I’m standing up, screaming out my disgust, with pants around my ankles, shit on my face and puke all over. Wife comes banging on the door, wondering what’s wrong. My instant thought is “she must never know”. In my stress, I reach for the door to ensure it’s locked, so that she can’t make any rescue attempts. Of course I trip, fall face first on the door. This doesn’t calm my wife, but leaves vomit all over the door and a hurting nose, which I instinctively grab to acknowledge the pain. It’s all a mess, like taken from a xxx-rated version of Faulty Towers
Been spending the last half hour showering, cleaning the bathroom and making up half ass explanations to my wife.
A year ago, Sengalese-American singer launched Akon Lighting Africa, an initiative designed to bring electricity to millions of Africans using solar energy. Thus far, they’ve installed solar street lamps and domestic solar panels in over a million households in 14 African countries. Now they’re setting up a new initiative to make Africa’s future even brighter.
