Stephannie Cames

I'm currently a student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY majoring in painting and a Teaching Artist at Rhode Island Latino Arts.

I’m originally from Miami and raised in the tropical islands, Las Canarias in Spain. I'm bilingual, first language is Spanish, but fluent in both English and Spanish. When I am not studying or traveling, I live in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

My work consists of several types of styles, from realism to abstract. But illustrative painting is my favorite.

My main inspiration is in my roots: Mozambican and Venezuelan. Since I was a child, my home was covered in African masks with a variety of designs, from different regions of Africa which inspired me with my female figures. Each room in my house was a different color, never repeated, and this inspired the choice of color palettes in my paintings.

The fancy colors, patterns, and forms I grew up with, helped me develop my work to what it is today: the female portraits embedded deep in my cultures and those that surround me every day, from Brazil to China.