Uman in T Magazine: The Artist Painting Pastoral Landscapes in Technicolor

One of the self-taught artist Uman’s first introductions to color, line and form were the vibrantly patterned dirac and baati dresses worn by the women in her hometown, Mogadishu, Somalia. She also took inspiration from the international fashion magazines that she found — and secretly ripped pages from — at hair salons, doctors’ offices and hotels. During this period, when the mononymous artist, now 45, wasn’t with family or playing outside — her uncles and grandparents owned camels and goats — she was often drawing. And she knew three things for certain: the gender she’d been assigned at birth was incorrect, her life would follow an artistic path and someday, she’d live in New York City.