Latoya Lovely, a muck-grown, self-taught artist from Belle Glade, Florida, creates so that her community and her son can explode triumphantly from a society which chooses not to see their magic, so that they can see their beautiful brown faces and hear their rich, powerful voices forever. Lovely is a professional dancer and educator and has known since she was a child that she wanted to color for the rest of her life. She has painted several murals around Portland, including at Alberta House, CoHo Productions Theatre, Portland Center Stage at The Armory, Oliver Middle School, among others. In addition, her work is part of the Portland State University Art Collection and the city's Portable Works Collection through RACC, and was featured in the Black Artists of Oregon Exhibition at the Portland Art Museum which was the first of its kind in Oregon. As a Black woman Lovely deals with colorism in her art, a form of racism where those with lighter skin and European features, are given preference over those with darker skin, and texturism which is the discrimination against people with tighter curls within the same race.

Lovely’s practice speaks to the atrophy of the family unit due to capitalism which forces society to push families to the side to show themselves as valuable and hardworking citizens. She does so by sharing her career with her son, who is ever-present on mural projects, residencies, and workshops where he is welcomed to create within the beauty of intergenerational spaces. In this way, Lovely accesses the freedom to pursue her passion without always being hindered by the financial obligations of seeking childcare, or the guilt which society expects her to harbor for taking care of family first, and she grants herself permission to grow in her practice in a meaningful and intentional way which in turn nurtures her son’s growing love of the arts. Her work is a vibrant celebration of the wonder and awe we as Black people have always inspired throughout the world.