- What does it mean to belong when you're always on the move?

For a St. Petersburg artist, Sketzii, the answer lies in the vibrant story she paints of the Puerto Rican diaspora.

(soft music) (chickens clucking) - Like I'm in downtown St. Pete or downtown anywhere else, Tampa, and then I go to PR to kinda have my, to go home, like, and it's in the country, country, and I'm barefoot all the time.

And then this place, the artist residency feels like that to me.

Like, if I can't go home, I'll come here to work.

(upbeat music) I think being a military brat is what influences the diaspora aspect of my work.

So I've been able to travel and visit lots of different cities, different places, meet a bunch of different people.

But I'm from Hatillo, Puerto Rico, so it's this dynamic that I have where I live in the in between at all times.

I have to do like a base coat.

I can't leave it white.

It's just not my jam.

That way, too, if like the light, if I, once I do the outlines, like usually I do everything that's super matte on here, but if for any reason it's transparent or like something peaks through a crack, like you'll see yellow.

You'll see another bright color, you know.

I don't ever want it to be white.

Like if I do white, it has to be intentionally.

I put white on the canvas, not from the primer.

(soft music) When I try to tell my stories, I have a really bright color palette and my color palette is reflective of the homes that you will see on the island.

And they're actually like color matches to like homes that are there.

So that's why I went with that color palette.

It's a very like Latino color palette.

It's very much of the culture, but then people interpret it as like happy.

They think my colors are happy.

So a lot of people who walk up to my work and they're like, "Oh, I love your work.

It's so beautiful, so bright.

It just makes me feel happy."

And here I am talking about like Hurricane Maria and how distraught I am that I couldn't be there to help out my family.

And like I'm crying underneath a flamboyant tree and they're like, "It looks great.

It looks happy."

And so that's probably the hardest thing to overcome, the fact that like my color palette gives one sense of joy to people, but then what I'm actually talking about isn't just something that's pretty on a canvas.

It's like the metaphors are about really deep stories, you know, things that I've been through, things that other people have been through that come from PR.

And so that's probably been the hardest thing to overcome is kind of explain that part of it.

And then as an artist you don't wanna overexplain anything or you don't wanna feel like you're defending yourself.

So it's like, hey, take this for what it is.

And I love that you think that, you know, it's beautiful and it's bright and that it looks joyous, but like take a second to really look at it.

Take a second to really read it.

Look at the title.

Try and put together, you know, the pieces.

That's all that I can hope someone sees in it.

That's also why I think it's so important for me to tell the stories.

When someone else connects to it, they get it.

Like, wow, I remember what happened during Hurricane Maria.

Like I was there, too.

Or, oh, I know what it is to go back and forth with a suitcase since I was three years old.

Like I completely get that.

You know, my work is for the people, so whatever somebody interprets is what they interpret, right?

So I'm not mad at all if like what they interpret isn't what I was trying to say.

If their interpretation is something that connects with them, like their soul or their story, I love to hear that because I have heard things all over the place about my pieces and I go, "Wow, I would've never thought in a million years like that's what you got from this."

And I love hearing those interpretations because then it makes me think, oh, like I can think outside the box now.

Like it doesn't have to be just what I wanted to portray in my work.

(chickens clucking) Being out here and being like disconnected from city life and noises especially helps a lot to concentrate.

It makes me wanna like not look at my phone.

You know, a lot of it is like looking at your phone and scrolling and like a lot of my daytime stuff is networking and like doing meetings and trying to figure out how to make the world a better place and all of these things.

And when I come out here, it's just me, like it's me, it's by myself, is me and the animals, which I love animals.

I think I like animals better than I like people.

(laughs) So I guess that's another way that influences me being out here, like the animals end up in my art.

(bright music) I find my community, especially since I've been a professional artist for the past five or six years, through social media, through Instagram specifically, and that is how I talk to people.

That's how I talk to my community.

I also love going to different types of networking events.

I work with multiple nonprofits to talk to other artists, other people that are in the community, community leaders.

And it's very much a part of my work now that I've been involved in several nonprofits.

I've been able to do community type of projects and it started my paint and sit classes and it started my community murals.

So it's something now that I didn't even think I'd be getting into when I first started as a professional artist.

And it's developed over time and it's actually like my number one favorite thing to do with art is to like have people involved with my pieces.

(birds chirping) (soft music) I'm all about sharing information and resources.

Like one, yeah, it feels good to do it for the community, but two, like when I see someone else, they have this potential and they're just kind of like lost in the sauce and they don't know exactly where to go with it, and I'm like, "I was you.

I was you a couple years ago.

Let me tell you about this, this, and this.

You need to sign up here.

You need to fill out these forms.

You need to meet these people at these places."

It's cool to really watch someone grow.

I think it's really good to surround yourself with a community of people, whether it's friends, whether it's families, whether it's coworkers or a network of a community or something, to have people around you who like recognize what your talents are and just keep telling you that same message over and over again because it's a mind thing.

At the end of the day, we are our own worst enemy.

So for anybody that feels lost in the sauce or has the imposter syndrome, we all do.

None of us know what we are doing ever.

You just have to like take the risk, go with it, see what works out, and be okay with some things just not working out the way you want it to.

What's meant for you, I truly believe in what's meant for you is meant for you.

So you should just go for it and not worry about what anybody else has to say.

(soft music) (bright music) - [Narrator] To stay updated on her upcoming projects, visit sketzii.com and instagram.com/sketzii.