An Important Note from the Author:
I made a choice about love (and by extension, all of my relationships…personal and professional)…and it can be summed up in the following quote by Sonically Bittersweet:
“Do you love me like
a lion loves a gazelle…or like a lion loves a?”
A Short Visual Adaptation
Maeva in 3rd Grade
One of them is not like the other…Cat’s Cradle, anyone?
Maeva’s introversion, curiosity and love for words inspired her to begin writing poetry at a very young age. Coupled with her love for mathematics, her love for reading and writing turned into a love for riddles and logic puzzles…and her poetry became much more playful. Despite being an introvert, she’s never been shy, which can seem like a walking paradox at times. (Yes, outgoing introverts exist! You can catch her on the dancefloor or at a game night cuttin’ up…if she actually makes it out of the house!)
(Fun Fact: Maeva went to a State competition for Math 24 and was the only 3rd grader representing her school while her teammates were all in 4th grade. 🤗)
Due to Maeva’s mother being in the military, she lived a nomadic lifestyle and spent a significant developmental period of her childhood in Belgium (grades 5-8). Prior to moving to Belgium, she spent her time in both North Philly and Central Texas, where she mostly lived with her grandmother/extended family and her father, respectively. She didn’t live consistently with her mother until the age of 10 (5th grade) due to her mother’s military obligations. (Military families sacrifice their lives for their country too.)
Maeva is very private about her personal life and if it wasn’t a well-known scientific fact that she exists due to having a mother and father of some sort, she probably wouldn’t tell anyone! (🤣) (Furthermore, she said: “Don’t worry about the specific details of my family. Mind your business.”) (🤭)
Fun Fact: Since Maeva’s mother was stationed at a NATO base in Belgium, which is an international military base and not an American military base, Maeva had the opportunity to form friendships with people from many different cultural backgrounds as various countries also had military personnel stationed on this base. However, her family didn’t live on the base; they lived in a nearby town called Jurbise.
Fun Fact: Maeva’s father sent her an Algebra 1 book when she was in 5th grade and she taught herself multiple Algebra 1 concepts in her spare time; this resulted in her testing higher in math in 6th grade and allowed her to skip math levels.
Her love of traveling and exploring other cultures would shape her perspective and journey in life. It cultivated her love of foreign languages, trying new foods and watching films.
Throughout high school and college, Maeva performed Spoken Word Poetry and participated in shows and slam competitions in various states. (She’s even won once or twice!)
After alot of hard work, Maeva graduated Summa Cum Laude from the UCLA College Honors Program with a BA in Anthropology. Interestingly enough, her dream school in high school was Florida State University because they had an underwater archaeology program and Maeva has been obsessed with the ocean for as long as she could remember. Due to being in a serious romantic relationship at the time, she didn’t apply to FSU and instead applied to the University of South Carolina to be closer to her partner, who had moved to South Carolina after graduating the year prior. Unfortunately, they broke up before her freshman year of college began…but don’t worry, he didn’t attend USC so she didn’t run the risk of bumping into him. 🙂 (Young ladies, please take that story as a cautionary tale and always follow your dreams and the vision you have for your own life. The right person will be in alignment and will be on a complementary path heading in the same direction. Make a wiser decision than she did!)
(Fun Fact: Maeva graduated early from UCLA. She transferred from the University of South Carolina, where she was in the Capstone Scholars Program because she got rejected from their Honors College. Little did she know, that rejection set her up for something better that was waiting for her. Not only is transferring from an out-of-state University to UCLA a rarity within itself, but transferring from a University to another University usually adds a year or more to a student’s education; however, Maeva sent many emails, had multiple meetings, filled out ALOT of paperwork and took summer courses to make graduating early a possibility!)
(Not-So-Fun Fact: UCLA had less than 3% Black/African American undergrads when she attended…and many of them were athletes, who were kept separate from the general student body. She made it a point to congratulate every Black student she came across, which angered some of her peers…and this was before Issa Rae’s famous 2017 quote at the Emmys. 🫶🏾 According to the most recent published data, UCLA is currently up to 6.5%.)
She worked for UCLA for six years.
While working for UCLA, Maeva created a Scholars Program and was the Program Director for five years.
She also founded a creative arts program called The Lyric Lounge and was the Program Director for two years.
(And yes, the math IS mathing because there was an overlapping year where she ran both programs.)
As a certified Power Yoga instructor, Maeva taught in yoga studios and inner city high schools.
Not only does Maeva enjoy using her mind to create and give back to the community, she also loves nature, hiking and being active outdoors!
In 2015, she conquered the tallest mountain in the [Continental] US in one day! 16hrs and 47 minutes roundtrip!
She also participated in the partial excavation of Mayan ruins in Belize in 2010.
(Again, one of them is not like the other!)
Despite having been an athlete throughout her schooling (track and basketball), she doesn’t consider herself a runner; however, she’s completed the Color Run twice and ran the 2013 LA Marathon (5hrs and 30 minz).
When not in front of the camera, Maeva enjoys working in other areas of filmmaking.
She’s crewed for indie music videos, short films and photoshoots. She’s done casting, sound, set design, G&E, art direction and 2nd AD.
As an artist whose artistry flows in and out of various forms, Maeva’s creative practice has heavily influenced her leadership style and approach to entrepreneurship.
Some of Maeva’s favorite moments from her professional life thus far
(in no particular order):
• Graduating with a 3.951 from the UCLA College Honors Program (Just FYI: I got an A- and it was counted as a 3.8 or something. My A+’s didn’t offset it either because they were worth 4.0 like regular A’s…which didn’t make sense…but whatever.)
• The day Maeva discovered the following quote: “No Black woman writer in this culture can write ‘too much’. Indeed, no woman writer can write ‘too much’ … No woman has ever written enough.” – bell hooks – Remembered Rapture: The Writer At Work, 1999
• Having students and faculty specifically request her to substitute at their school (Ms. A. says “Good Morning!”)
• Creating and directing two high school programs while working for UCLA
• Sharing in her students’ joy of being accepted into their dream schools (including Ivy leagues) …especially when she wrote them a recommendation!
• Founding her [artist-owned] businesses
• Completing and realizing her first installation concept, which was the precursor to her current artistic methodology
• Booking her first national commercial and her first co-star on a TV show
• The look on a fourth grader’s face as he realizes that he’s great at a math game and accesses a new part of himself. (He was initially very shy due to having low reading skills but this opened him up and he began to blossom.)
• Earning her 200hr Power Yoga certification
• Having a student eagerly introduce her to his parents at his high school graduation…and for him to tell them what she meant to him. (She didn’t know that he was actually paying attention during the after-school program.)
• Feeling the spark when she resonated with a recent Call-To-Action within the film industry
• The subtle satisfaction anytime artwork is completed
“Compassion and Empathy allow us to think of new ways for freedom to exist…only then are we allowed to have a conversation worth having.”
– Maeva Asare
Maeva’s Four Loves
Her dog, Shadow
Her Romantic Life Partner / Soulmate
Creating Art
Surface Version:
Her interdisciplinary conceptual art practice develops new frameworks for exploring the invisible dimensions of human experience through experiential forms; her work is expression-led, inquiry-responsive, and discovery-driven. By blending several disciplines and mediums with a socially engaged practice, she treats art as a site of research where philosophy, poetry and embodied inquiry converge. Moving between self-expression and her own curiosities, she uses both as means of discovery. In each case, the creative process becomes a form of revelation through which she analyzes, transforms, and recontextualizes what emerges; by doing so, she translates observations, ideas and personal reflections into experiences that others can encounter and interpret through their own internal responses.
Central to her practice is a long-term, four-part study that integrates original artistic methodologies, linguistic research and experimental forms to examine how meaning is constructed, perceived, and experienced. Rather than illustrating ideas, her art functions as conceptual and experiential investigations that invite sustained participation and embodied reflection. Rooted in experimentation and guided by a commitment to the concept of human flourishing, her work encourages viewers to slow down, attend to their own embodied responses and engage with art as a catalyst for reflection, connection and a deeper understanding of the human experience.
In Depth Version:
Her interdisciplinary conceptual art practice investigates the invisible dimensions of human experience by translating emotional, psychological and embodied phenomena into experiential forms. She has a socially engaged art practice because she knows that artists are an essential element in solving the puzzles that unlock the potential of our society; to stay connected to the people of the world and to the environment, she uses a travel studio as her primary creative space rather than a traditional studio space.
She is currently working on a longitudinal study within her practice, which has four pillars/movements. Within this study, she is building fluency in eight languages to better explore a novel linguistic anthropological concept that she uncovered. She’s been gradually introducing the concept through her work; some of which can be viewed on her YouTube channel: Visuals and Sounds. As an integrated part of her study, she has done arts advocacy in CA on the local and state level and has participated in a board training specifically for arts organizations.
Her work is rooted in poetry, philosophy and mathematics and is influenced by Dadaism, Street Art and Surrealism. The pieces tend to come together as interactive installations that are designed in the direction of Human Flourishing. Her certification as a Human Rights Consultant has deepened this aspect of her work. She encourages viewers to slow down and examine where her work physically and emotionally resonates within their bodies.
She is currently taken with audiovisual work: both experimental film and artists’ moving image. One of her experimental shorts, The Way Through, has screened in several countries and has won awards.
Her background as an athlete has translated well into her approach to her work as she views her practice as compounding strength building exercises. She uses her own art terminology to describe her work; these terms can be explored in her art journal, where she comments on her work, writes in depth about her process and shares more openly about stories from her personal life. Sonically, she is currently exploring the relationship between color and music while diving deeper into her particular interest in minor keys.
She launched [PartOne] of an interactive virtual art installation, which has sparked conversation regarding the definition of art and its role in our everyday lives; she is working on [PartTwo] of the installation.
Her artist name is Maeva [My•ĒĒĒ•vuh] and she wrote the following note about the reason she chose to use her name in this form:
“I stand in solidarity with those who have ethnically-rich names and/or unique names. We are the ones who improve the dexterity of the tongues of the people we meet. As our physical ability to create new and different sounds improve, so do our ears to hear and receive new communications so honestly… you’re welcome. 😘”
Her first collection is pictured below:
AND
FOOD!
A Few Words From Maeva:
Thank you for visiting my world on the interwebs.
Remember that the pendulum forever swings and we all take turns in the darkness and the light; in those moments of darkness, try to turn your face towards the light. It may not seem like it is there but it is…you just gotta find it…and remember that there are times when your own bioluminescence lights the way. Seek and you shall find because what you seek is also seeking you.
“Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly…” – Langston Hughes
Om Shanti Ase’….Be Blessed
