An illustration by artist and ECU student Aamba Chavis graces the cover of the recently released Songs for You Vols. 1 & 2 — a limited-edition vinyl and compilation series, produced by Vans and Record Store Day to spotlight Black artists and Black-owned record stores across the U.S.

Speaking with Aamba, it quickly becomes clear that a contribution from her deep, daring, pensive practice is a perfect match for the Songs for You project, which celebrates the power of communities and collaboration. The album brings together a community of acclaimed recording artists, such as Common and H.E.R, and as mentioned on the CBS Good Morning Show, releases a rare Roberta Flack track that was never released.

“I love collaboration, and I love seeing other people grow through the lens of their artwork,” she tells me. “And when artists work together and when there’s a community built, I think something beautiful can be made out of that.”

This outward-facing perspective on art-making is perhaps unsurprising, given the influences in Aamba’s upbringing. The daughter of a NYFW executive producer mother, and a musician/songwriter/artist father (and member of pioneering shoegaze band, The Veldt), Aamba says she saw from a young age how meaningful community could be to a creative practitioner.

Born in New York and raised in Brooklyn until age 12, Aamba says she was always surrounded by a diverse group of people. Going to museums or events like performances and fashion shows were a routine part of her young life. Though her teen years in Vancouver were spent acclimating to a more quiet life, she would occasionally visit her father in North Carolina and accompany her mother to New York, which kept her keyed into the arts community. She points to this early exposure to visual art, music, fashion, and even cartoons as defining influences on her development as an artist.

“Being around those types of people really nurtured me to develop my art style, and to develop my voice as an artist as well,” she says.

Her voice has begun to land with an adoring audience, in arts communities both in-person and online. Through her father, Aamba was connected with her first commissioned work for a musician called Goodnight. Several more commissions followed, including an illustration for “Anybody,” a 2021 single by California rapper Ab-Soul featuring Louis King and Fana Hues, and the cover for The Veldt’s recent, self-titled EP, which was released June 12. New Noise Magazine, in its article on the Songs for You project, takes note of Aamba’s cover image, calling her an “emerging young voice in Black visual arts.”

But Aamba remains clear-eyed about her burgeoning visibility; for her, the opportunity to collaborate with musicians is all about advancing the arts, and her practice.

“For me, visual art and music go hand-in-hand, and compliment each other,” she says. “I think sound and music are some of the most important things for my art practice as well, because sometimes, when I hear music, I can also visualize things.”

The result of this visualization appears to have its roots in traditions including horror, Lowbrow art, underground comix and punk illustration. With a spiritual ancestry in the groundbreaking work of seminal illustrators including Robert Crumb, Graham Ingels and Jim Phillips, her images often centre around a Surrealistic perspective on the human body. Her backgrounds — consistently a flat black — send her fleshy, visceral scenes and characters popping out into the viewer’s space.

But rather than depicting fantastical bodies for the sheer spectacle, a peek at Aamba’s Instagram feed reveals a psychic delicacy undergirding each of her illustrations. An image of a teary-eyed woman being enveloped by monstrous hands made of sand is accompanied by text labelling the work, Day 1 — depression. In another drawing, a girl looks astonished as her face and head are pulled into a coiled ribbon, around which a tiny rollercoaster has begun to glide — Aamba’s text, in this case, referencing the rollercoaster of emotions during the week of the 2020 US Elections.

It’s here, in the comments section of Aamba’s posts, that her ongoing work creating connection through art once again becomes visible. Her followers chime in to affirm and relate; they lob hyperbole to show their admiration, and thank her for bringing life to feelings around contemporary topics they’d been unable to express on their own.

And according to Aamba, this is precisely the point.

“I love to take universal concepts and make them my own,” she says, noting that the literal distorted perspective in her drawings often reflects the very private experience of feeling discombobulated — a phenomenon experienced by many people who struggle with mental health and especially the everyday challenges of moving through a complicated world.

“I’ve gotten to know my followers and my audience really well,” she adds. “And yes, I make art for myself, and what I make, in a sense, just comes to me. But I also make art that I know the people in my audience and the people I’ve gotten to know could potentially relate to.”

In other words, Aamba’s vulnerability resonates with her audience as much as her talent does. And those connections are precious to her; in fact, part of her social media practice specifically aims to amplify the voices of others.

“I like to post the work of people who are trying to become artists, or just want to share their artwork,” she says. “It’s one of the best parts about having a large platform on Instagram: uplifting other people.”

If all of that wasn’t enough, with the support of the Beedie Luminaries Scholarship, Aamba decided during lockdown — between her first and second years — to study New Media + Sound Art at ECU. The goal, she says, is to find ways to bring greater interactivity to her comic and illustration work. With that aim in mind, she’s embarked on a radical expansion of her toolkit. Video-game design, interactive digital comics, and experimental animation with coding and Makey Makey circuit boards have all formed part of Aamba’s art journey over the past year.

She’s also “extremely excited” to be interning with Macroverse, a leading company in the next generation of digital comics. At Macroverse, she is currently bringing an all-new dimension to their platform with the launch of the first NFT comic drops, known as Macroverse Epics. This summer internship is giving Aamba the opportunity to mentor closely with Macroverse founders Eben Matthews and Adam Martin, who are helping her elevate her understanding of comics, concept art, character design, and storytelling. She says she is “thrilled” to be launching a comic with Macroverse this summer and to be releasing work that aligns squarely with her interests as an artist.

“It’s about bringing the reader into the comic book world and making them a part of it,” she tells me. “And that’s so exciting.”

Meanwhile, Aamba says she’s looking forward to coming out of lockdown, and potentially travelling on exchange to do a semester abroad in the upcoming academic year. But of course, for Aamba, it’s the idea of experiencing a new culture and community that really gets her wheels turning.

“I love Vancouver, but I’m ready to experience a different culture and to study elsewhere and to experience a new community of people,” she says. “It’s thrilling to witness that. So yeah, I’m excited.”

Find more of Aamba’s work and follow her on her Instagram, @aamba.c.