Amanda Flowers is a caretaker of her family’s history. All her life, the Cal State LA senior has heard stories about her mother’s family from North Carolina, and from her father’s side in Texas.

The little snippets of her ancestors’ lives have been passed on from one generation to the next, and Flowers has taken her turn to share the stories. She does so with her paintings and other artwork. There is no photographic evidence, for example, of her great-great-great-grandmother Jenny and her fabled long, black hair and black snake, but Flowers brings back to life her dark tresses and the pet reptile.

But Flowers does not simply regurgitate the stories of her grandparents, great aunts and uncles, and others who came before her. Her paintbrush provides fresh, new strokes to their ancestral tales by incorporating colors from her own life and dreams.

“They tell me stories from their childhood, about their own parents and grandparents,” said Flowers, 29. “So I have a combination of different scenes I pull out, but I also pull from my intimate life, from my dreams. I have very vivid dreams.”

“It’s definitely an interpretation of their stories,” she continued. “I come from them, so their history is already within me. Those are their memories, but I also have my own, and I combine them together.”

Her vigorous depictions caught the attention of Gucci Changemakers North America, which earlier this year named Flowers among the 12 recipients of $20,000 scholarships that aim to uplift and empower undergraduate students to pursue their unique paths within the design and fashion industry.

Flowers, who prefers to go by her professional name but is also known by her given name of Amanda Fair, says she has spent some of the scholarship money on art supplies and has earmarked some for graduate school.

But first, she will conclude her undergraduate work in studio arts at Cal State LA with her capstone senior project, which will continue Flowers’ exploration of “Ancestral Bridging.”

In her artistic statement, Flower described “Ancestral Bridging” this way: “We live in this colonized world where mainly minorities are disconnected from their childhood and lineage, which can diminish their identities. However, we all inherently honor our families in unique ways like naturally cooking family recipes or singing all the lyrics from a tune that we remember from our childhood. When we place positive intention behind it, the connection can become stronger with identifying self, bringing courage when navigating the real world.”

She is also currently working on a concept called The Community Gardens, a multidimensional painting of buildings with different communal life moments interacting together on rooftops and within rooms.

Flowers—a painter, photographer, sculptor, and poet—did not begin her collegiate career as an artist, but as an aspiring astrophysicist. At 17, she enrolled at Arizona State University as an aerospace engineer major.

“I’ve always loved space; I wanted to study dark matter,” she said. “I was interested in the stars. I had an old telescope, I was just a little nerd, you know. I just saw the beauty of the sky.”

But Flowers said the program failed to speak to her, and being away from her family in Northern California for the first time in her life left her feeling isolated.

She found solace in her paintings and discovered art to be her true passion. She then left Arizona State, returned to her hometown of Antioch, attended a couple of community colleges, ensconced herself into the Oakland art scene, and made a good living as a professional photographer.

Flowers moved to Southern California seven years ago, partly to integrate into the entertainment industry, but also to take business courses at Pasadena City College to help grow her photography business. Finally in fall 2023, Flowers enrolled at Cal State LA to concentrate again on her art.

“It just feels very relaxing,” she said. “Art is a stress reliever. Even just going to an art exhibition, you can escape your reality for a little bit. It’s a safe haven. You see other people’s perceptions of reality, and it just feels cool to depict things from my mind and be able to expand on them.”

In February, Flowers held her first solo exhibition, The Family Flower Garden, at the WJD Gallery in Pasadena, showcasing her multidisciplinary skills.

“Amanda showed such a wide range of work—paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics. She has such a diverse skill set,” said Phung Huynh, Cal State LA assistant professor of art. “She’s very thoughtful about what she says and what she thinks. I admire her community-based approach, and her work is about honoring her ancestors and history. It’s very spiritual.”

Flowers, of course, harkens back to an ancestor when discussing her versatility.

“My great-grandmother Marie used to experiment with plants and crossbreed seeds to get different plants,” she said. “I feel like I crossbreed themes, and I experiment and create different art. It has come full circle. Genetically we have different traits, and they come out in different ways. Someone else from my lineage passed down this skill.”

Her mother, Amber Redmon, describes Flowers as an inquisitive “old soul.”

“She’s always been curious about who, what, where, when,” Redmon said. “She’s always been into the family and where we come from. When we took our trips to North Carolina, she was very attentive to the people there, trying to get to know their names and faces and their stories.”

Redmon appreciates the universality and timelessness of Flowers’ pieces. Flowers’ subjects might be about her family, with a sprinkling of herself, but Redmon says the art provides a sense of familiarity. She cites a painting of her mother’s North Carolina farmhouse as an example.

“My brothers and I can relate to that picture because we were there,” Redmon said. “It’s from Amanda’s point of view, but anybody can feel that they’ve been inside that house, inside that kitchen. It’s relatable to a lot of people.”

Flowers is a Cal State LA success story. The university endeavors to transform lives by cultivating and amplifying students’ unique talents, diverse life experiences, and intellect.

Flowers plans to pursue a master’s degree in art, which will likely mean she will be unpacking more stories about her family from North Carolina, Texas, and California.

“There’s a lot of power when you can honor the people around you,” she said. “Everything starts with the home. When I hear my mother say, ‘You see me in this capacity? You see me like this? I didn’t even know that’—I want to share that information and honor family members.”

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California State University, Los Angeles is the premier comprehensive public university in the heart of Los Angeles. Cal State LA is ranked number one in the United States for the upward mobility of its students. Cal State LA is dedicated to engagement, service, and the public good, offering nationally recognized programs in science, the arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education, and the humanities. Founded in 1947, the University serves more than 24,000 students and has more than 250,000 distinguished alumni.