Meet Ke’Chanbria Ball I AM HUEMAN INC. | Fine Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ke’Chanbria Ball I AM HUEMAN INC. and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ke’Chanbria Ball, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Well, when I started I AM HUEMAN INC., I was focusing on what does it mean to be a “person of color.” For centuries, racial supremacy has been buried in American history and is still prevalent to this day. 1619 Jamestown Colony is the origin of America’s patriarchy of white supremacy, discrimination, and racism. Fear and generational trauma have been pervasive in Black culture. Black people have been degraded from slavery, racist imagery, stereotypes to continued police brutality.African Americans have been degraded within American mythology. Offensive racial content was created in order to further demean people of color. Anti-black caricatures like mammies and golliwogs have hindered the Black community’s physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. I want to rewrite these negative notations while reflecting on my experience as a Black woman.

I want my movement to serve a facilitator to help people understand Blackness. Blackness comes with complexities as well as duality.
The significance of my work is my reflection on humanity and depiction of the fluidity of being Black. The name, I AM HUEMAN INC., adds to the conceptual meaning of being “Colored, Negro and/or Black.” We have be dehumanizing and striped of our identities. My movement creates a new one.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
This journey definitely isn’t an easy one. I had a really tough time when I started making meaningful work. I felt a clique or stereotype, because I felt like making Black art was the norm for Black artists. However, my identity has always been something I felt passion about and expressed throughout my work. Langston Hughes poem, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” helped me through this. Hughes describes a poet that “wants to write like a white poet” subconsciously meaning he wants to be white. This poem dates back to 1926, and is still relevant to young black artists today. The poem states that the “racial mountain,” is the desire to pour racial identity into the mold of American standardizations. By this he means that the artist is willing to give up their identity to please the eyes of America. Hughes reflects on his own struggles as a Black writer writing about Black culture. He embraces his Blackness and uses it as artistic expression.

I want to move someone just how this poem moved me. I want to inspire Black people send make them feel like they have a place in the world. I also want other races to understand us as well. I want to rewrite this stories of self-hate, racism and discrimination and humanize Black people. Representation does matter. The representation of Black people has been unsettling, humiliating, and completely inaccurate. Imagery is something that the human experience relies on. It helps a person associate the imagery with themselves and their experiences.

Through visual vocabulary, a smile is incorporated in the majority of my paintings. A smile is used to manifest a person in their truest and purest form. The juxtaposition of figure and background, speaks to the fluidity of being Black through the medium of poured paint. The poured paint depicts the different cultures that are often overlooked, by simply labeling all Black people as African Americans. Many of my portraits are based on photographs taken of my friends, people I admire, and of other artists. This connection that I have with my models is important to capturing the essence of a person. This is how I view the world and Black people. I take a softer approach to how I see Black people while still reflecting on my own experiences.

I do not see us as aggressive, lazy, thugs, ugly, that society has labeled us to be, but as hueman beings with feelings, ideas, goals, and families.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I have an AWESOME support system! I would love to shout out my family and friends for supporting me in all of my endeavors.

Website: https://kechanbriaball.myportfolio.com/welcome

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_iamhueman/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kechanbria.angeliyah