I feel like we're looked at as either completely nonsexual characters or overly sexual characters, and I feel like that affects how we're treated in the public space by men. I believe that women of color experience street harassment in a very hyper way. So I wanted to draw these women in their very normal, regular states and put those images out there in the public for people to see, instead of these other, very sexualized, images of women.

Stop telling women to smile.

I've generally gotten negative feedback from men who don't understand and don't find street harassment to be a serious issue. I've also gotten a lot of responses from women who are appreciative and thankful for the project; who relate to it who are passionate about it.

In Boston, a couple of the women were students and they mentioned how Boston has a huge student population, and that's specific to their experiences of street harassment. They feel like the men were a lot more aggressive, particularly when it comes to social outings and things like that.

I feel like this is a feminist issue and is going to be a part of a feminist conversation, and I wanted images of women of color in that conversation - feminism historically has left us out.

I feel like we're looked at as either completely nonsexual characters or overly sexual characters, and I feel like that affects how we're treated in the public space by men. I believe that women of color experience street harassment in a very hyper way. So I wanted to draw these women in their very normal, regular states and put those images out there in the public for people to see, instead of these other, very sexualized, images of women.

I am primarily an oil painter and a studio painter, so originally I was going to do an oil painting.