- I was surrounded by art at an early age.

My mother taught me how to sew.

(sowing machine whirring) (sowing machine whirring) My art is heavily inspired by my upbringing.

(sowing machine whirring) Leather art is something that I love to do.

(inspiring music) Scrap piece is so valuable.

What's really important to me is taking raw materials, things that people may deem as scrap materials and making something out of nothing.

Turning scrap pieces into beautiful works of art.

Because the leather art and what I do comes so natural to me, it really feels like a spiritual assignment.

For me, it is the whisper of my ancestors.

I'm led by my intuition in terms of what to create.

So I'm putting together a puzzle with these various materials to create an image that people will find value in, that I find value in, and that actually represents where I come from, where my family comes from, and the exposure I was blessed with as a child.

(soft playful music) (soft playful music continues) (sowing machine whirring) The first piece is a African shield.

It's one of 10.

This is my third one.

And the shield represents leaders within our community and the strength and resilience that they possess.

(sowing machine whirring) And then this piece is a warrior that I am creating with leather.

So I used some of the smallest pieces of leather as to, you know, nothing going to waste to create a resemblance of like skin tone and then garment.

And then, you know, I'll continue on to the top to create the image.

The main part of my art that I do, I do a lot of leather mask.

I do a lot of leather shield.

I do source locally.

I go to, I often go to Tandy Leather, which is in Hales Corner.

Also State Fair, I found some like amazing hides at the leather vendor that comes there every year.

It's very hard for me to, as you can see, throw away any of the odd and end pieces of leather that I do have because from this is very useful to me.

Like this small piece of purple could be the, you know, the top layer of a earring that really just makes it pop out.

So I do do a lot of wearable art.

I do small accessories, so I do leather jewelry, leather wallets.

When my mother was young, she wore these long feathers in her hair, which really inspired me with the leather earrings that I make that resemble feathers.

I do leather bags.

I did do some clothing pieces for a few wearable art shows.

I feel like a large part of my personality goes into the work because my spirituality and my belief that my family and my ancestors have contributed to this gift that I have.

(soft music) The name of my art is called Zula's Whisper.

And Zula is the name of one of my aunts on my dad's side.

When I'm working, I'm not laying out what I'm doing.

I'm not drawing a blueprint in the beginning.

I'm just going with how I feel and I often think about my family.

It's very spiritually led.

I feel like it doesn't have to be explained.

I don't need to know who it came from or where it came from because I can actually feel it as I'm creating.

It's something that I absolutely love to do.

I could spend, you know, the rest of my life being a creator and creating artwork.

So it makes sense for me to utilize my time doing something that I really love and enjoy and I feel like it's an inherited gift.

(inspirational music) (sowing machine whirring) - [Narrator] Thanks for watching "The Arts Page."

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