Milwaukee native Aisha Valentin partnered with former Milwaukee Buck and celebrity artist Desmond Mason to complete a mural embodying Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire. Valentin explains how she displays her pride in her culture and community through art.
What does the Art of the Flavor mean to you? What does it mean to you to be a part of this program?
I think it’s awesome. Just the fact that they’re pulling out elements of our specific communities into the flavors and really highlighting the communities with it. So for mine, it was fire for the LGBTQ+ community. I just felt that that was so aligned with my community because we’re so vibrant, resilient, dazzling. The fact that they’re really highlighting each specific side of town and community with these flavors is really important in terms of visibility, and just like honoring the space and adding to it, and I’m just really honored to be a part of that
What burns inside you to want to be an artist?
Honestly, I feel like creativity for me is fire. Your fire, your base chakra is where your creativity and sexuality come from. It’s what you manifest things that are within your brain into the world. And there’s just, I think, having an understanding of the story behind what it is that I’m creating is so important. That’s the fire that fuels the message that goes into the piece.
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