M. Francine Campbell, aka Faida
born 1955, Tulsa, OK
While she doesn’t like to think of herself as an artist and has had no formal art-training since high school, Faida has been making art her whole life. At an early ageher artistic talent was nurtured and encouraged by her mother. Painting and being creative were always safe ways to find calm and to express her feelings about the world around her.
At Central High School in the early 70’s, her art teacher, Wilma Armstrong, provided a safe space that helped motivate her to attend and graduate high school. Believing her art was only a hobby, she pursued a career in science and technology. However, seeing a need to bring art to her community, she opened Future Vision Fine Art Gallery (1991-1997), located in Tulsa’s historic Deep Greenwood district.
Faida considers her art a form of storytelling. Through her paintings she conveys journey as a person of African and Native American descent. Often the subject matter in her paintings reflects a response to injustice but her paintings equally convey the goodness of humanity. Currently her paintings focus on the beauty of endangered tribal cultures such as the Wodaabe of Africa.
After retiring as a science teacher in 2019, her artist husband, Yusuf Etudaiye, encouraged her to study painting, develop her skills, and paint full-time.
