Penelope Grand

Penelope was born and raised in a brownstone on Halsey Street in Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up with her two parents Ralph and Mirella. She is mixed race with her father being African American and her mother being Dominican. As a child Penelope did not have any real friends and spent most of her time drawing. Mirella described her as an obedient child, one that she never needed to discipline. Penelope went to RISD, an art school but dropped out after a year due to the critiques of her teachers who told her she was drawing with paint. She describes her drawings as “object studies”, she draws what she sees rather than put any emotions into her work.

Penelope left Brooklyn and moved to Pittsburgh for five years in order to find herself. She spent most of those five years working in bars, hooking...