I'll definitely pay attention to someone who is critiquing the artwork. But as far as someone not thinking street harassment is a big deal or that I'm being uptight? I don't think that's a valid critique.

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.

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.

Specifically for black women, our images and our bodies in the media and in history have been so hypersexualized.

It's been kind of extreme - people either love it or they don't like it at all - and I think that's a good thing. It's my first art project where there's not a middle ground. I find it very interesting. But the negative feedback hasn't at all kept me from doing it, obviously. Because I haven't really gotten any negative feedback that I feel is really warranted.

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

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.