Artist Bio
Mina Rowland (she/her) is a journalist, artist, and poet. Rowland taught herself the basics of illustration and watercolor in high school and designed her own major in Multimedia Storytelling at Brandeis University. Her concentrations are in Film, TV and Interactive Media alongside Creative Writing and Studio Art. Her practice usines mediums including documentary film, illustrations and creative writing. Her work serves to uplift marginalized communities through celebration and further examine social issues such as race, gender and the environment.
Her art and writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Justice, Spoon
University and been published in the literary magazine Connections. Rowland
recently won the Andrew Grossbart Memorial Poetry Prize for her growth in her
writing. Her art has been previously exhibited in the RISE in Radiance Student Gallery and the Brandeis Usdan Student Wall Gallery. She is completing her first collection Claiming (Outer) Space, a chapbook exploring identity, society and resistance through original poetry and illustrations.
Artist Statement
My mother always made a point to find children's literature that reflected little Black girls with beads in their hair coming of age. I could recite Maya Angelou's poetry and sing along to Nina Simone and Lauryn Hill. From food to films, my childhood was infused with Black culture. However when it came to the ‘art world’, I rarely found the same level of knowledge production surrounding Black art. There seemed to be moments in history; The Black Arts Movement, The Harlem Renaissance and political influences; Black Lives Matter and The Natural Hair Movement that were reflected in art but outside of ethnic enclaves it was all rendered invisible. Even more distressing was the focus of Black art, film and literature often took a more traumatic lens.
As I aged I decided that I could perhaps make a difference in the visual perception of Black folks. I grew up drawing and making doodles since I was six. My mom taught me about perspective and I continued to practice creating characters and making my own greeting cards until I realized I could be taken seriously as an artist. The word itself as an identity marker is one that I have a complicated relationship with. To be an artist is to make something out of nothing, or perhaps it is to simply reflect the world around us. For me being an artist is to make someone feel something.
Within my practice while multimodal, I aim to bring stories to light that have gone under the radar. I want to invoke an emotional reaction to bearing the truth of society and Black life. More than anything. I want to celebrate Black joy and creativity.
In my illustration work, I often create striking characters and invite viewers to use their imagination for their stories. I use metaphors in my poetry to express my own emotional state around issues that persist today, a form of commentary that tells a story in rhythm and rhyme. Within my filmmaking practice I am my most literal self, I use cinema verite to tell the truths I see and archive the stories of people around me.
In all of my work the thread that ties them together is simple. I want to tell stories.
Contact
For inquiries contact me through my email