Painting the World I Want to Live In

Keisha Manijean, born Keisha Nicholson, grew up in the southern California suburbs of Compton, Gardena, and Walnut with an adoring father, a mother who was an early child development teacher, an older sister, a baby sister — and a twin brother who arrived 9 minutes before her named Kerrich. "I call him my 'carriage' because I arrived on his coattail!"

Born with a protruding birthmark on her forehead which she popped out of sheer angst at 9, Keisha suffered bullying as but the first of her many trials in life. Art became her refuge. She began at age 5, drawing creations of the Disney Video Covers — inspiring her fascination with the world of illustration and fantasy. Surrealism as a medium became her focus.

Naturally gifted, Keisha explored many facets and genres of art before attending the Savannah College of Art & Design in Georgia. Her travels have taken her all over the U.S., London, the island of St. Martin, and Paris, France. Each experience profoundly shaped her world and view of people on a universal level.

Keisha's art mediums are oil, inks, charcoal, and color pastels. A defining element of her work is her quirky use of layering. Keisha also makes fine jewelry and specializes in prayer beads centered with healing crystals.

Keisha's most recent works were spawned from timely meditations on the Black Lives Movement as well as the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples include "Harmony Through Conflict" — in which an African American boy and a Jewish boy discover and befriend each other on the frontlines of a BLM protest.

"The viewer is always free to interpret my work as they see it," she says, "but I will always define my state of mind when I created it."