Take a step back to see the whole picture
Keila Strong creates powerful images through paintings and beaded mosaics.
Traditional mosaics are created using broken pieces of glass, stone, or clay. The smaller the pieces, the more intricate the design can be, and from far away the small flacks of color fool the eye into seeing one seamless picture.
Chicago artist Keila Strong has taken centuries old practices and applied them in a style that is all her own. Using barrettes, rollers, combs, clips, hair ties, and beads, Strong creates unique mosaic portraits on canvas.
Elevating plastic clips and barrettes into fine art is an important message that these objects are just as worthy of time, observation, and value as anything else. She writes on Instagram,
“I didn’t see myself in paintings growing up, so I set out to create works for little black girls and women like me. Let us see how beautiful, how bright, how vibrant and colorful we are. Let us see ourselves in art and as art, let us see and be amazed.”
When she was growing up, Strong was gifted a paint brush and an apron. The potent plastic smell of the apron stayed with her as she grew and she realized that this gift was a defining part of her life. When deciding to pursue art, she chose to paint for her younger self because she never saw any artists that looked like her. She said in an artist talk back in 2020,
“I have these recurring themes: women empowerment, social justice, honor, love, joy, and those are all God’s principles. My art is just a branch of my faith, it’s just another way for me to reach.”
A self taught painter, she started experimenting with elements of realism and cubism to find her style. Her acrylic paintings are full of life and movement, the use of color and shape are the foundation for her powerful portraits. In 2020, she painted “The Last Supper,” a work that came out of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. Taking about two and a half months to complete, Strong said in the artist talk,
“This is a table that any one of us could be at, literally and figuratively,” she said. “It began as a celebration of life, but dealing with social injustice, racism, and systematic racism, it’s a fight that a lot of us know we’re in, but we don’t know when it’s coming to us.”
Included in the background of the painting are depictions of KKK and a police officer with a gun aimed towards the table. Each person sitting at the gathering lived in that state of limbo, never knowing when something would happen. As Strong worked on the painting, it stayed with her as she learned the stories of each person and their families.
Growing in her success, Strong has continued to produce powerful images. She had a solo exhibition, “The Genesis of Blackness” in the fall of 2022 and
Active on social media, she shares her work and powerful messages and advice about life through her faith. Follower her on Instagram @customsbykeila and TikTok @keilastrong and check out her website here for her portfolio and work available to purchase.