I2F’s canvases are alive with color, tension, and storytelling, merging personal history with the collective memory of his community. Influenced by masters like Van Gogh, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jacob Lawrence, Ernie Barnes, and Washington, D.C. legends, I2F’s art is a testament to survival, self-definition, and the power of beauty arising from pain. Every brushstroke is both a remembrance and a rebellion—a vivid proof that art, like life itself, is strongest when it comes from us all.
I2F grew up in Washington, D.C. and Maryland, and at three years old began painting under the guidance of his aunt, a Maryland Institute College of Art graduate whose private, yet powerful work, left a lasting influence on him. The height of the 1980s D.C. crack epidemic, peer pressure, and the call of the streets lured him away from his artistry. During a time when being a black male invited negative stereotypes, pursuing creative dreams felt risky—“soft” even—causing I2F to keep his gift hidden in the shadows.
In 2011, in a small Washington, D.C. apartment, he returned to painting with unshakable determination. By 2014, he adopted the name “2 Feathers” and launched his brand “I’m From Us”, transforming the “I” in his moniker from “Infamous” into a declaration of unity and shared identity. The tragic loss of his daughter, in 2017, became a turning point that ignited a deeper, more profound, urgency in I2F’s art.
Raised between Maryland and Washington, D.C., I2F began painting at the age of three under the guidance of his aunt, a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. Though her work remained largely private, its emotional depth left a lasting imprint on his early development. Coming of age during a complex and formative period for black D.C. communities in the 1980s, I2F navigated environmental pressures and the pull of the streets that gradually distanced him from his artistic practice. In a climate where expectations of black masculinity often left little room for creative vulnerability, pursuing art could feel risky, often misunderstood or discouraged, leading him to keep his gift largely out of view.
In 2011, within a small Washington, D.C. apartment, I2F returned to painting with renewed purpose and conviction. By 2014, he adopted the name “2 Feathers” and introduced the brand “Infamous.” Rather than accepting its conventional meaning, he reframed it as a personal declaration, transforming the term into an expression of unity, shared identity, and collective strength.
