Kilmichael native Talameika Brice, 38, was chosen to paint the mural on the new Barack H. Obama Magnet School. The school, formerly known as Jefferson Davis Elementary, had its name changed in Oct. 2017, after a student vote.
The students at the school, which is a majority-black school, decided to change to honor the first black president, and after meeting with former President Obama’s advisor, they decided to go with Barack Obama Elementary. Brice said the Jackson Arts Council put out an open call for artists to submit renderings of the former president for a mural to be painted on the building.
She said she and her husband Charles, who’s also an artist, both submitted pictures. However, Brice won over her husband.
“That was great. I was happy about it,” she said. “My husband is an amazing artist. We actually met in a drawing class at Jackson State University. He’s a tough one to beat. And the fact that I one upped him, yeah, I still rub that one in.”
But, Brice’s husband actually helped her paint mural, which she said took two weeks to complete. She said it hasn’t sunk in yet that her painting and the impact that it will make -- forever grained into the blueprint of Jackson.
“The enormity of it hasn’t hit me yet. The day of the unveiling, there was a lot going on up until then, we finished at 2 p.m., the unveiling was at 7 p.m., then we had to go back home, shower, get dressed and pick up our children. Then, during the unveiling it was raining, pouring down, and we had to go through the motions of unveiling.” she said. “I broke my finger five days before the unveiling and then I had another event that following Saturday, so it was just go, go, go.”
But, Brice said once she actually had time to settle down and think, it began to hit her.
“When I finally got a chance to breathe, I just sat down with it and looked at it,” she said, adding that she had to take it all in.
She credits her talent to God. “It’s really a God-given talent and for Him to work through you like that, it’s so humbling. But, that part hasn’t set in yet, the whole fact of it being there forever, it hasn’t set in yet. It hasn’t been a month, so I hadn’t gotten to that part. My mom tells me I need to. Hopefully, I will. But, I have two small kids and a husband so it hasn’t set in. Eventually, it will sink in.
“It’s hard to think about, you know, my mom and dad are from Duck Hill. I’m from little ole town in Kilmichael. I came to Jackson to go college and I just stayed here.”
Under the picture Brice painted is a quote from the former president. “It’s from Alice Walker, but I think the President but put his own spin on it. It’s ‘We are the one that we’ve been waiting for, we are the change we seek.’”
That can be said about the painting and the name change of the school. For Brice, the children are becoming the change that Jackson seeks.
“They wanted to change the name, they went through process. They’re the reason it switched to Barack Obama Elementary,” she said.
The school is one of the top performing schools in Jackson and in the state, and for the students to change their own school name was significant.
Brice, in a way, can relate. She graduated from Montgomery County High School in 1998. Coming from humble beginnings, having her mural on the wall has a significant meaning for her as well.
“I grew up in Kilmichael in the 80s and 90s, all we had were dirt roads and the library, we didn’t even have internet” she said. “The library was mostly what I had so I would love reading books by different authors. My favorite author is Shakespeare, and he has this line in one of his poems: ‘So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see. So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.’ I live by that motto for everything I create. Everything you create has a story behind it and it tells the story of the people that were there.”
Brice said she took into account the impact the students made by making this huge decision and for her, she took that into account while painting.
“The font choice, colors, shading, translated their hopes and dream into an image for them,” she said.
She said she’s been painting since she was three.
“I understand now that I’m a parent when you’re trying to do something, and I came from a single-parent home. You give a child busy work to keep them out of the way. My mom would always give me paper and pencil and say ‘Draw something for momma, baby.’ And by the time she was done, I would have all of these paintings and drawings for her. She encouraged me and with Kilmichael being Kilmichael, it wasn’t a lot of exposure for the arts.”
Brice said she was awarded an academic scholarship to JSU.
“I wanted to be computer animator, but I had to go through graphic design because they said it was a gateway to computer animation,” she said. “I was actually enrolled at Mississippi State at the time, had my room and everything, but they didn’t have computer animation at the time, all they had was computer technology. So, I went to JSU for my collegiate experience, and that’s where I was formally taught the arts.”
Brice and her husband own Brice Media, an umbrella company for their graphic design, photography, web design, logo, campaign and rebranding design. She said she’s done work throughout Mississippi and has clients outside of Mississippi as well.
“I’ve done things nationally as well as internationally,” she said modestly.
Most notably, Brice designed the wheelchair hubcaps for the U.S. fencing team when they went to Paris that they still use today. And, she mentions her work casually.
For anyone who wants to go after their dreams, Brice offered some advice.
“You can do and be what God created you to be,” she said.
