We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Seanice Batchman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Seanice thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project I’ve worked on was a piece titled “wats yo name?”. I created this piece while going through the frustrations of being a black woman moving on my own, constantly having to deal with men around me, not knowing if I move incorrectly if it’ll be fatal or if I’ll be considered “what wrong with black women today”. I wanted to create something that evoked danger and insecurity to show how it feels to move through life through my perspective.
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?
I am a social networking intern for an IT company, trying to break out in the art world. I started painting in 2021 as a hobby, soon realizing that I felt fulfilled whenever I’d create. I took part in a display in April for the Hairpin Arts Center in Chicago and have just continued on from there. I paint self portraits, sex workers and pieces that focus on drug use and mental health to show the beauty in the oppressed and to uphold the aspects of life people aim to ignore.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My goal is to represent those who go unnoticed. Being an activist for black issues and for sex workers, I want to represent these people, as they deserve to be looked at as beauty, as fine art.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn is that the safest option is not always the best. I was majoring in journalism for four years. I took that major because I was scared to become an artist. I felt that I didn’t have what it takes to be considered good enough. After working for two newspapers and being a freelancer, getting denied from an internship I thought I wanted, I decided to go into art like I had planned originally, as the safest option wasn’t set in stone for me and I wasn’t happy. 
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Photographer for gallery picture: Instagram: @blaq_productions