NICO

By Garret Mantle

You’ve probably seen Nico’s murals while skating in Sweetwater or speeding down the Arlington Expressway. Nico is a well- established artist and muralist originally from West Palm. She began her artistic endeavors in summer camp as a child, and continued on to a middle school and then high school of the arts. She has been living in Jacksonville for about 8 years now, doing huge things for the community here, including two new big projects that are in the works. The first is a skatepark behind the Shiloh Church with obstacles made by Team Pain Skateparks. This will be the second skatepark Nico has gone after, giving beautiful abstract views to an otherwise ordinary park. Nico is also helping to facilitate the production of a giant mural called “Color Jax Blue” taking up three sides of a massive historic building off Moncrief Road, in an underprivileged community. The mural has been organized by Shawana Brooks who collected a handful of very talented Black artists and activists to help revitalize the old historic building in hopes to encourage more Black citizens to vote. Nico has many personal goals and aspirations for her art and Jacksonville as a whole. She has been working on mastering her style for several years. Inspired by different aspects of the 90s, Nico carved out a distinct style with vibrant throwback elements.

Giving back to her community has been one of the most fulfilling parts of her career, and she aims to inspire other local artists to become more engaged in their community and spread positivity to everyone, everywhere. Nico’s latest goal is to do a big mural community project at the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center. She believes teens are the most impressionable, and that some haven’t quite figured out who they are yet. Nico’s goal is to bring artists to the center, hoping their interactions with the kids can show them their own creative potential and inspire more careers in the arts. As Nico once told me “everybody has creativity within them. You just have to tap into it and see which areas your strengths are in.” This mentality could do nothing but bring positive change to a child, teen, young adult and even a full-grown adult’s life. Although Nico loves Jacksonville and being part of the community very much, she has some big changes coming in the near future. Once relocating to Miami in the upcoming months, Nico’s new plan of attack is to go forward with her career. She plans on slowing down on the big community projects for a while, and wants to put her attention on her career as an individual artist, prioritizing her work and continuing to make unique pieces. Needless to say, the future looks very colorful for this influential and determined woman. To follow along on Nico’s adventures, find her @nicosuavalicious.

Do you enjoy little at home projects or big murals more?

“Right now, if I didn’t have to leave the house, I would not leave the house. This is gunna sound really bad but murals are exhausting! Like exhausting! Basketball courts are exhausting! I would rather stay at home every day for the next couple months like quarantine was like a dream for me. I know that sounds really bad because I know this whole situation has been really hard for a lot people, but for me it was like a major break for my anxiety and stuff. I just like stayed at home and did stuff that was fun I just let my creativity flow. I’d just do like random projects and stuff so, stay at home is what I’d prefer.” 

What are some of your favorite things to paint?

I love anything neon. I like the colors. I like pink, and yellow, orange, red, purple, I’ve been really into blue lately. I like dogs. I love dogs. I love big cats. I like flowers, I’m not so much into flowers as much as I was. Finding elements like I’m really into 90’s stuff like checkerboard, and tribal tattoos and gothic font and just like 90’s things. So I’m like trying to do a modern take on the 90s with my style.

Do you have any good advice or life quotes you would like to share with any up and coming artists?

Good advice that I have would be to just always to stay true to yourself. I think in the world of social media everyone thinks they have to be like this or like that. They just try to mimic other people but you have to be yourself. Being yourself is what makes you unique and I hate to say valuable but if you’re trying to pursue anything like music, art or business, figure out what it is that makes you… you, and what makes you special. And just focus on that you know? You don’t have to be like anybody or any type of way to be valuable or worthy of attention or respect you know? Just stay true to yourself and research. Whatever industry you’re going for, research you know? Don’t get taking advantage of. Make sure you protect yourself as an artist and don’t give out stuff for free, you know just make sure you have guidelines in place to protect yourself and your creativity. I think that’s the best advice I can think of right now.