Alva

“Painting is my passion. Primarily I paint figurative images and my favorite medium is watercolor”

As a young child of five or six years of age, Alva’s draftsmanship was exceptional for her age. She enjoyed drawing throughout her formative school years but abandoned all artistic skills once in college.

Alva, pursued a successful career in law enforcement until an on-the-job injury ended her career and she retired at the age of 37. She returned to college to become a pre-school teacher. While enrolled in college, she took an art class and the rest is history. Her love for drawing and painting resurfaced.
The college did not offer watercolor classes in its curriculum, only oil and acrylic and the professor teaching the painting classes was not a watercolorist. He suggested that she purchase a set of watercolors and try them out,
she did so and went on to teach herself watercolors.

Alva has taught art at the St. Josephs Hayti Center and the Durham Public School District in Durham, North Carolina, as well as, various senior centers in the Los Angeles area.

Her images have been included in the movie, “Sacred is the Flesh”, as well as, the image “Sistahs” was chosen for the cover page of the Duke Medical Center’s medical magazine. The image, “Sistahs”, was also selected for display at the United Way Foundation in Los Angeles, CA.

Recently, Alva, was among twenty-one artist selected by acclaimed Artist Charles Bibbs and The Southern California Black Chamber of Commerce, to exhibit her body of work, “Bridges”, at the San Bernardino County Museum’s first Black History Art Exhibit.