Meet Cliffannie

Mustapha- Tell me a bit about yourself.

Cliffannie- My name is Cliffannie. I am a multimedia artist from Brooklyn. I love doing oil paintings and just working with different mediums and textures; very big on textures right now, and I'm hoping just to develop more and incorporate other mediums into my artwork.

 Mustapha- How would you describe your journey so far as an artist?

 Cliffannie- Interesting and joyful; I'm fortunate to be where I am right now. I feel like not a lot of artists can say that they've done a lot of the things I've done, not to toot my own horn. Right now, where I am with my art that it's been hard but also, at the same time, entertaining. I’m learning more about myself and what I like to incorporate into my art. As I said before, textures have probably been one of the biggest things I'm trying to incorporate more because I think it’s fun, and my art should always be fun. Art, in general, should be fun; it shouldn't always have to be a head bust. 

Mustapha- Most visual artists draw inspiration from others forms of visual art, but do you feel auditory art plays a role in your creative process? 

Cliffannie- No, not really; I pull much of my inspiration from everyday life, whether about my life or how I feel in the moment. I would love to start listening to more music to see how that would make me feel when creating art. It's so funny because I don't even listen to music like that when I'm creating art; I’m usually watching a tv show or talking to friends on the phone while I'm creating, so that's something I’d like to try a bit more, listening to more music seeing how that makes me feel in the process, I feel it would definitely have some inspiration to my work, but my mood is definitely what brings out art and how I,m feeling in the moment.

Mustapha- What do you feel is your most significant work?

Cliffannie- I have a lot of great pieces but “Uganda, " a piece I did back in 2016, is my most inspirational and my little flex I like to talk about now and then; that piece is my baby. I went through a lot to complete the piece. I had to go to Africa, Uganda, specifically; do you want to hear the story behind it? I don’t know if I've ever told people how the piece came about.

Mustapha- Of course 

Cliffannie- I skipped school in 2014 to see One Direction, and I ended up actually meeting them. My mom found out, I thought I could be slick and get away with it, but she found out and spoke with my church, and they organized to send me off to Africa; they felt as though I was being ungrateful and I was like you know what I understand what you were going for, but it was a little extreme, but I went anyway. It was like a 24-hour journey, a 14-hour plane ride to Dubai, a 10-hour layover in Dubai, and then we took another 5-hour plane ride to Uganda. I was out there for about a week, and other creatives surrounded me, to my surprise. My friend Brian, a photographer, took a couple of photos out there, and when I got back to the states, I started to look through them. It was my senior year, so I tried to find pieces that would help me with my portfolio because I was in AP art at the time. I needed portfolio pieces, but I also wanted something that meant a lot to me, and finding those photos Brian took really put me deep into my creative zone. I found one photo in particular, and I eventually did a painting of it and luckily, my art teacher at the time pushed me to put my work into more competitions; I wasn’t the most confident in my work, but she secretly entered me into a competition, and that’s my piece ended up getting into the MET and then into Times Square and then on social media and it really became its own thing. I eventually worked with a designer name Felicia Noelle who put the piece on clothing that captured Gabrielle Unions' attention, and she bought and wore the clothing. It’s crazy because I skipped school, and that ended up birthing one of my most outstanding art pieces. 

Mustapha- If you could hold an exhibition anywhere worldwide, where would it be and why?

Cliffannie- New York, Brooklyn, New York, specifically, that’s my home, and I know it would be a fantastic turnout. I would love to see all the creatives come through and just be able to see all of my friends who are also creatives come through and support me; I know it would be a great turnout. I’d start there first and, eventually, work my way to Europe.

Mustapha- Who are some of your favorite contemporary artists?

Cliffannie- Edgar Degas is an artist I pull inspiration from mainly because of the composition in his paintings; I wanted to use his techniques within my work to show varying compositions. My art teacher Maria Jimenez is probably my biggest inspiration in how I even developed as an artist because she pushed me and inspired me, and I also wanted my work to be like hers. I feel like everyone says Vincent van Gogh, but I feel like he’s just a cool ass guy. He may have gone through a lot, especially mentally, which I can relate to, but I pull a lot of inspiration from him just as much; but yeah, I would say those three artists are my go-to's for inspiration.

Mustapha- Are there any mediums that you want to get into?

Cliffannie- I've been working with yarn a lot recently, and I want to work more with fuzzy textures like wool, fur, and suede. Right now, I’ve been working with acrylic; it’s the most intimidating medium, in my opinion, because it’s fast when it comes down to drying, and I use oil paint primarily. Oil paint is a medium you can manipulate a lot, and you have a longer drying time. Acrylic is probably my next challenge to conquer. I really want to start working on a smaller canvas, and that would be nails. I want to go to school and get certified to start doing nails, but I would like to take my art to the next level, and that's working on a smaller canvas; nails are freaking tiny, but i feel like me doing artwork and the skills that I've developed over the years can help me do that so be on the lookout for me doing nails and getting really creative.

Mustapha- Where do you stand on the  A.I debate?

 Cliffannie- I don't care about it; I can see everyone's opinion on how it takes away from people supporting artists who really put hard work into their pieces, and specific individuals can just go on their phones and generate paintings. The consumer will just pay for it because it’s cheap, and I say let them because, at the end of the day, people are going to support real art no matter what, and just because their doing that doesn’t mean people aren’t going to support still homemade artwork.

Mustapha- Do you know why people get so upset about it?

Cliffannie- I’ve never done a deep dive into it because I'm not really on social media a lot

*Gives a brief explanation of how A.I art generators work*

Cliffannie- OK, now that I know, I would be pissed. I definitely understand people's anger now that you’ve explained it to me a bit. I definitely have to take some time to research it more because I've seen people post pictures voicing their outrage and just like, wtf is going on

Mustapha- Is it essential to have some form of formal training?

Cliffannie- No, I mean me I went to art school, and of course, that played a big part in how my artwork developed, but I feel like as long as you have passion and you’re really interested in wanting to grow as an artist, you can do it without any type of training just pure dedication will get you far, You can pick up a book and study a different artist and the things that they do, that's kind of how I got started into artwork, I looked at a lot of different artists and studied their work, not in a sense of trying to copy them but more of looking at the techniques being used.

Mustapha- Is there anything you haven’t done that you look forward to doing as an artist?

Cliffannie- Having my own gallery one day, I feel like many artists are pushing themselves to have their own gallery and show, and I would love to get the chance just to showcase all of my artwork within a room and take a moment to see how I’ve developed from young to now. Also, working more in the fashion world, I want to start creating more items, whether it be t-shirts, bags, keychains, and anything that would have my artwork on it.

Mustapha- Do you have anything the people should be on the lookout for?  

Cliffannie- Honestly, right now, I'm just trying to put myself back out there; I took a hiatus for a while, and I would say be on the lookout for more new art and more textures because I've been enjoying it, and hopefully, a popup show of my work which would probably be my next step with my artwork. So yeah, a gallery show, more artwork, a clothing line; I want to drop sweaters and t-shirts. Unfortunately, I'm not taking commissions now; I would love to be more open to it, but when I'm in a better space. The space that I'm in right now isn't really suitable for the work I’d want to do; hopefully, commissions will be back open pretty soon but at the moment, no. 

You can find Cliffannie on

Instagram: @Cliffannie

Twitter: @Cliffannie

Website: Cliffannie.bigcartel.com