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I interviewed Kat H, a Dominican artist behind @creativepowerr, and she gave me great insight into Afrofuturism and her artistic inspiration.
Her account currently has 12.7k followers and frequently uploads visually impressive creations. She also has an active Etsy shop, which you can access here.
The primary objective of Afrofuturism for me is to honor the past to represent a better future for our black communities. It’s also a beautiful way of portraying Black people in surrealistic, beautiful scenarios to have a different representation than the one we had in the past…
Her parents are photographers who had Adobe Photoshop downloaded in their computers, which led to her discovering the tool and using it to play around and experiment.
Kat had no previous knowledge of Photoshop and mentioned letting her imagination flow, improving with the years, and picking up a few things from YouTube tutorials.
It wasn’t until 2019 that she began making art with a purpose. She’s been creating mostly Afrofuturistic art for the past three years.
Much of her art involves vibrant, sci-fi-esque purple prints featuring women, animals associated with African fauna and spirituality.
She uses Adobe Photoshop, Premiere, and Aftereffects for her art. She fully lives through her art and gets her clients through Instagram, who usually commission her work. She has collaborated with RashaMasda.
She stated that her primary inspirations include her African ancestors and photos of Black people and African tribes in general.
She mentioned the Másaai and African forms of art like masks and drums. Electronic music also inspires her to give life to her photos through animations. She mentioned preferring bass music, dubstep/brostep.
Some of her personal favorite artworks include:
Universe Protector, Oasis, Mbili, Spitir animal, Touched, Neon shapes vol. 1, Lazer gaze, Nuru, She rules the galaxy, Galáctica, and Future. All of these are available on her Instagram page.
Her Etsy shop sells prints featuring themes such as flower spirits, tribal prints, beautiful African gods and goddesses, and even tote bags, posters and sweatshirts. The price range for her original prints is between $22, with the clothing items reaching up to $55.
Her shop is also available directly on her Instagram page.
We’ve analyzed the importance of Afrofuturism in previous articles and concluded that, just as Kat expresses, it explores Black culture and through futuristic lens, reimaining a rich history free from the chains of appropiation.
In Kat’s art, African spirituality and technology come together as one.