( AKA ROSE CAMARA)

I am a Milwaukee native, but my art education and career span beyond Wisconsin.

My background is steeped in the visual arts - both art history and studio art. I initially enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) intent on becoming a children's book illustrator. While on that journey, I fell in love with art history. In 2018, I earned my BA in Art History, Theory, and Criticism from SAIC. I explored my interest in the perception and reception of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe - Italy specifically. My thesis investigated the life of Venetian painter Francesco Torbido di Marco India, il Moro, as a potential artist of African descent. I continued this line of inquiry into 15th and 16th century Venice at the Courtauld institute of Art, University of London from 2019-2020 earning a MA in History of Art (Continuity and Innovation: Reframing Italian Renaissance Art from Masaccio to Michelangelo). My research shifted to Black women in Venetian paintings by artists such as Vittore Carpaccio, Titian, and Paulo Veronese. My dissertation focused on the origins of Black women as a fashionable attendants across European art that began with the Venetian artist Andrea Mantegna and the noble woman Isabella d'Este, inspiring depictions of Black attendants and enslaved persons in Western paintings into the 19th century. 

As an art historian, I am enthusiastic about uncovering the hidden stories that objects may have. I'm currently interested in writing, researching, and curating the material culture of folk healing, magic, and ritual globally.

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I love to travel, adventure, and use curiosity as a vehicle to expose myself to different communities and cultures. I previously participated in professional development programs and internships at institutions such as The Art Institute of Chicago, The Brooklyn Museum, Cornell University, and University of California Los Angeles in partnership with the J. Paul Getty Villa. This has given me a breadth of knowledge in several museum roles including object research, preventative conservation, object registration, and curatorial practice.

Illustration is still my favorite mode of making . I am most interested in animation, comics/graphic novels, and children's book illustration. My mixed media illustrations and inky streams of consciousness explore words, spirituality, introspection, stretching the bounds of my own vulnerability, and facets of my mental health as characters in constant conversation.

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Lastly, in my downtime I am usually planning my next backpacking trip, going to therapy, creating an an art piece, playing video games, reading Japanese manga, and petting cats!

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Thank you so much for your time.