Artist Interview - Gifty (Pt.1)

How excited are you to be featured on Flick Solitaire as part of the Black History Month celebrations? 🎈🎉

- Very excited! I've been playing the game myself for a while and have been enjoying it. So it's exciting to have taken part in something really fun and educational for Black History Month!

What does Black History Month mean to you? 📜

- It means a lot to me as a Black woman to recognise and remember great Black figures who have made such a big impact in our history!

What is your favourite body part to draw? ✏️

- Eyes and legs! Some of my sketchbooks have just full pages of them, it's almost creepy to look at lol

What is the best news you have received recently? 📰

- The Kickstarter for The Wagadu Chronicles hitting its goal in 3 days was amazing news! :)

What video game character would you be? 🕹️

- Iron Bull from Dragon Age Inquisition, although to be honest i think I'd rather be friends with him than be him. He seems fun to have a drink with!

Apart from Flick Solitaire (of course) what is your favourite card game? ♥️🃏♥️

- Honestly? Go Fish, it's a childhood favourite of mine so I like it for nostalgic reasons

What or who inspired you to draw? 🤩

- Cartoons! I've always enjoyed various cartoons and anime ever since childhood :)

Your Black History Deck raises awareness of many important people throughout Black history, please tell us more... why did you choose your theme and who is your favourite person from your deck? What were the challenges in creating your deck? 👩🏾‍🎤

- There are so many amazing Black figures throughout history that people may have never even heard of. I'll admit I didn't know one or two of these figures at first but I got to learn about them more during my research, which I'm really grateful for! I still admire Rosa Parks but as a creative one of my new favourites would have to be Gladys Bentley 🎩. During my research, I mostly listened to her music to get a better feel of who she is and what she's expressive about (which is on Spotify btw!) And I was blown away by her deep voice! I think my main challenge in this deck was interpreting figures who didn't have any photographic references. Musa Mansa in particular I had to sort of design him based on how he was depicted in the 1375 Catalan Atlas, I hope I did him justice!

A huge Flick thank you to Gifty for guiding us so lovingly back to history and recreating the icons featured in the Black History Deck - start collecting now.

All images are available free for schools to download here too!