Today we’d like to introduce you to Fantasía Graham.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Fantasía. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Well, I was definitely a child who enjoyed drawing and coloring. I was obsessed with people, it intrigued me how different we all are physically as well as personally. I remember drawing portraits of my neighbors and dropping them off in their mailboxes as a gift — I was around 7 years old, just harassing people with my art haha. The thing about me as a kid was that I was into everything, tried just about anything, but I found myself lacking passion for those activities. I didn’t think art was something I could be passionate about so it took me until my junior year of high school to really look at art seriously.
Around my senior year of high school, a young student, a friend amongst everyone, had been shot and killed — not too far away from the school. Her name was Hadiya Pendleton. The next day at school was truly meant for students to come in and grieve and mourn her death. I couldn’t find the gumption to come to school that day so I spent the day painting a portrait of her. All day I painted this portrait of her looking down amongst the stars and the clouds. A friend of mine had made prints of the painting and hung them around the school. Students were taking the posters home to keep and thanking me for painting her and sharing it. I gave the original portrait to her mother and she loved it, held it at the funeral, and still has it in her home to this day. At that instant, I knew that I wanted to be an artist; I saw how my art was affecting the people around me, I saw how it was helping people heal and get through hard times, I saw that it was something that I was passionate about, I haven’t let it go ever since.
I attended Bradley University for art, I was told that earning a college degree was necessary for success — totally debatable. Last spring, I earned my BFA in both Painting and Drawing and honestly, I got to where I am today through the support of my friends and family. I’m always meeting new people who are just the best people ever, and I’ve just been given so many amazing and beautiful opportunities to showcase myself and my work. I believe that I haven’t even scratched the surface as to where my art can take me,
Has it been a smooth road?
That’s such a rough question! I would like to believe that no matter how hard times have been for me, it could’ve always been worse. When I did believe times were a little rough around the edges, it mostly involved finding a balance between my love of art and my way of making a living. I think what makes the art world a hard place to live in is that the people who appreciate the arts the most are the artists. With that being said, sometimes you have to sacrifice so much no matter what you choose to do in life. When it comes to “doing something I love” and “doing something that will definitely support me financially”, it’s a hard decision for most people to choose between and or find that balance. I, among most artists, want to one day have making our art be the full time job; but we have to work a million times harder to make that happen. It’s just not that easy for people who aren’t already “paid”.
Another struggle I found myself faced with was creating the art I wanted versus creating the art that would get attention. I started out painting people of color in a way that was definitely getting me noticed and it was nice to see people responding to my craft so positively. There were times where I was afraid to try something new or was unsure as to what I should paint and what I should post on social media because I didn’t want to lose whatever following I had, I think that was more of a personal dilemma than anything but I believe that’s a pretty relatable issue that most young artists are confronted with — especially in this day of age where “likes” is what most people strive for before self-acceptance.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Just Fanni story. Tell us more about the business.
I’ve been drawing since I was a little girl, I’ve been painting since I was about 18 and I haven’t stopped yet. I would say that that I specialize in portraiture. I could definitely paint fruit in a bowl, a dog wearing a tie, but what I’m the most taken back by is the human anatomy as well as human nature. What I am the most proud of, when it comes to my portraits, is really honing in on one’s personality and expression, really letting that show through something two dimensional. I took a film photography class and I focused on composition the most because I realized that when you take a photo, the most important thing is finding that moment where everything feels right and catching it before time escapes your grasp. Using that ideology, I put it towards the paintings, The figures in the paintings should really stop time when you look at them, I want them to find you in a moment and catch you with their eyes — I know that sounds super theatrical and romantic but I’m so serious about it. I believe what sets me apart from others is that what I care about the most, is allowing my work to speak to its audience the same way, a person would speak to themselves. When you look at my work, I want it to whisper in your ear and you really hear it and you nod your head because you agree with what they’re saying, you relate to how you believe they’re feeling. I want my work to really reflect the people who look at it because I’ve learned that all most people want is someone to understand them. When people look at my paintings and say, “I totally get her”, “I feel how he’s feeling”, “Man, this was me yesterday night”; it makes me proud of my work. I’m not very worried about keeping a consistent style or touching on the same theme because I don’t want all of my pieces to look the same, they’re not the same, and they’re not all talking to the same people, ya know.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Honestly, over the next 5-10 years, I hope for a lot of my pieces to find permanent homes in museums. I want to be known as someone’s favorite artist, be known as someone’s inspiration, be known as the reason someone looked at their own art and thought to themselves, “I can make a name for myself in this world with my work because despite adversity, she made it”. I want to be wearing the shoes that young talented artists want to step in.
I’ve been thinking a lot of about going to grad school so that I can later on in life teach college level art classes and help guide aspiring artists. Maybe I can skip the pleasantries and make a name for myself that’s so big, any university would want me to teach for them, that’s the dream. I’m only 23 years old and I have so much life ahead of me. As much as I love to dream, I have to wake up to make it all reality.
Contact Info:
- Email: jusfanni@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justfanni/
Image Credit:
The personal photo of myself was taken by Rob Lauren
The photo of me infront of my mural was taken by Evan Brown
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