We were lucky to catch up with Monae Richards recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Monae, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artist path ever since I was a child. I was drawing on the walls and always got in trouble. Even in elementary school I was so glued to a pen and wrote so many poems. It was like I was creating my own world and kids in my class liked to read them. But when I got older, I realized I can share this world and others can relate to it. Which made me love it even more having the ability to help others with something I love to do. Art and music are something that has stuck with me my whole life. As I got older it wasn’t hard to know what was meant for me.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Hello, my name is Monae Richards. I am 19 years old, and I am an Artist as well as musician. I started my craft incredibly early in life. When I was a child, music was a big part of my life. My mother was always introducing me to many different genres of music. I would hum and dance to the beat. Then she would sing, and her voice inspired me to sing. I would write songs and poems that I knew I wanted to perform one day. I go as far as drawing on the wall with markers to dressing up as a music artist of my own for Halloween. I started off traditional and it has always been my favorite, but I also am an advocate for digital art. I love medias such as charcoal, oil paint, and graphite. I love trying different art media but overall, I love all concepts of art. For digital I use my iPad and I love that because I can take it everywhere. I love being able to create my art everywhere I go. Let’s talk about my art and my style. I pour my heart and mind into my artwork. I like to have a diverse style within my art. One side of my art is detailed, and the other side is fun and very urban. I love expressing both sides of life within art. It makes me proud that I can have fun and share my talent. One ongoing project that I am excited to share with the world is my FLWR collection that you would see on my website. The FLWER series is also connecter to my brand MO.This is a series of fun cute characters that is also behind my brand.It shows the fun and colorful side of my art. With my music I always sing/write about stuff that is relatable and nice to the ears. I love the attention to detail within my music and the breakdown to it all. I grew up with listen to a lot of different music as a person that African American and Jamaican. My attention was always on music as a kid. I wouldn’t just listen to the song i would listen to the lyrics, production, and the flow. I had a lot of black artists that really inspired me a lot. All aspects of art truly have my heart and attention.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My goal is to spread my art and music to everyone. I want to build a community where people can enjoy my art and music. Also to be known for my art and my dedication to it. The goal is to explore everything within the art community and apply all that I got into my projects. To spread love through my music and art hopefully I can help someone or inspire someone to do better. I usually love to connect with people through art better because it makes us vulnerable which is good way to see someone foe who they are. Vulnerability is a power that we all have.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
There are many stories that I can tell but I have one story that sums up how I take hardships. I was the age 9 in the car being asked yet again “what do you want to be when you grow” I usually gave an unsure answer because from others I would hear “nurse” or “doctor” which was so cool to me. But at this age I’ve written over 50 poems and made tons of artworks devouring sketchbooks. I knew my answer and replied “Artist” and I was shrugged off and told “Art will die off” lead with a “The world won’t need it for long”. I was hurt as a 9-year-old because an adult telling me that made it seem so real. Those hunted me for a long time and lived in my head as I drew more. The words didn’t hunt me in a way that I felt like “Art will die off” I thought ” I need to keep art alive”. I don’t ever want projection to slow me down in life. When I want something, I’m going to aim for and I’ll either succeed or fail. But I will never be hunted by words.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://monaerichards2800.wixsite.com/my-site-6
- Instagram: ___.monaeluv
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/monae-richards-818720234
- Other: Soundcloud –https://on.soundcloud.com/6z5Ps7DE7E7M4GVk6