Take Jaime Brown, an internationally renowned mural artist who lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Her colorful murals brighten Nova Scotia, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Canada and most recently Wisconsin, USA.

In 2020, the Kenosha native and her collaborator Karim Jabbari created three prominent murals: “KINOJE” in Kenosha, “Waves of Giving” in Janesville and “Kindred” in Milwaukee. Brown was commissioned to create her Milwaukee mural on the 2nd Street skywalk after an extensive, competitive international bidding process. “Kindred” celebrates the connections between the neighborhood’s and Brown’s own Native American heritage.

“Within that mural, I hid several symbols from Native American culture,” Brown explained in an interview with the Wisconsin Muslim Journal. “To the regular passerby, it just looks like bright, vivid geometrical shapes and abstract patterns. But there is a meaning behind a lot of what is in that mural.

“I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do and how I wanted it to look. And when I submitted my proposal, I had a really good feeling about it. I said, ‘Bismillah,’ and clicked send. ‘Ok. We’ll see what happens now. It’s in God’s hands.’”

But before this diamond sparkled through her public art, Brown became a Muslim. Her new faith returned her to her roots. She began creating her own authentic art.

So, sit back and enjoy this true tale of a young Kenosha woman who made it big in the entertainment industry only to abandon the Hollywood highlife to pursue Islam in Morocco, then became an internationally acclaimed artist.

Growing Up Curious and Creative

In the interview in the spacious basement studio below her Kenosha home, the high-spirited, fast-talking artist said she had been a curious child.

Her face is framed by a pastel green headband and black underscarf, draped with a light pink, flowing hijab, looped loosely below her chin. Subtle eyeshadow and light pink lipstick complement her fair skin and bright blue eyes, revealing skills she once used as a professional make-up artist in Hollywood.

As a young child, Brown skipped TV in favor of doing art projects. She sat at the kitchen table with her craft box, influenced by her mother, an artist and accomplished graphic designer. “Her background in calligraphy and love of typography rubbed off on me,” Brown wrote on her website.

She also had a strong urge to find the right faith from a young age. “I’m talking second and third grade,” Brown said. “Why I had that inside me is something only Allah knows.”

Brown rode her bike to the library and pulled out books on each religion she found. She didn’t want to be Catholic just because her family was. She wanted to learn herself, she said. She didn’t come across any books on Islam at the time.

“I was raised Catholic, baptized as a Methodist and my best friend was Mormon, so I used to go to seminary with her in the mornings before school,” she recalled. “My other best friend was Methodist and I used to sleep at her house – on purpose – on Saturday night so I could go to church with them. I was always looking for the truth.”

Brown ended up joining a non-denominational Christian church. “Everything I found was almost true, but nothing really ever made full sense to me. For me, Christianity was the closest I could get,” she said. She decided that “unless something better comes around, I’m going to stick with this.”

Encountering Islam in Hollywood

Always adventurous, Brown moved on her own to California after college to be a stylist in Hollywood. Once she was there, she observed production work on movie sets and decided to learn those skills. Gradually, she began working in production for TV, film, commercials and music videos.

Eventually, she was working with celebrities, living in Beverly Hills and driving a Jaguar. “I hand painted a KISS logo on a pair of bowling shoes to give Gene Simmons at a surprise birthday party at Lucky Strike, a Hollywood bowling alley and bar frequented by celebrities.

“I was doing all these things everybody said was so cool, but I was not impressed by any of that,” she recalled.

When working in production on an HBO series, she had a colleague who left on Fridays to go to Jummah prayers. She learned he was Muslim and tried to convince him to go to church with her. He refused.

“I didn’t know anything. I was very Christian at the time. I was coming from Kenosha where I taught Sunday school and went to church activities even on Thursday nights.

“I can usually convince people to come to church with me, so I was surprised he was so stubborn. That peaked my curiosity. What is it about your faith that has you so glued to it and what is it that all you Muslims are even doing anyway?

“I had no clue about Islam, only the garbage we see on TV portraying Muslims in a terrible light. But that didn’t make sense because what I saw on TV and his behavior at work didn’t match up at all.

“So, I asked him if I could borrow his book. I thought I was going to read it and tell him why it didn’t make sense and why he should come to Jesus.”

Brown started reading the Quran and was “shocked to find it was very similar to the Bible.” As she kept reading, “it became more and more clear to me that this was the truth I had been searching for since childhood.”

Leaving Hollywood behind

Brown knew she had to leave Hollywood, she said. “My lifestyle there was not cohesive with Islam. ‘If my surroundings are going to change who I am, then I need to change my surroundings,’ I thought. I wanted to go to a Muslim place and be around Muslim people.”

So, in her mid-twenties, she “packed everything into one suitcase and bought a one-way ticket to Morocco and just decided to plop down there and see what happens. I didn’t know what to expect and had no idea what I was getting myself into.”