Mbomda Léonella Jemison is an artist whose work reflects her Cameroonian heritage, personal experiences, and the many identities she’s grown into over time. She works across different mediums, from pencil drawings to digital art, creating pieces that speak to her culture, her memory, and her self-discovery.
Depending on where she is and who she’s with, she answers to one of her three given names, each with its own unique story. Her father's side of the family calls her Mbomda, a name passed down from her paternal great-grandmother, Megni Mbomda, a well-respected woman of the Batchingou ethnic group. On her mother’s side, she’s known as Léonella, meaning “little lioness”, originally chosen to be her first name. And then there’s Jemison or Jem, a name tied to her school life, used mostly by friends and teammates. It was given by her late father, who named her after Dr. Mae C. Jemison, the first Black woman to travel to space.
Growing up with three given names was its own kind of journey, and one that now inspires much of her creative work. For years, she mostly shared her art with close friends and family, but she’s recently decided to step into the public space as an artist, to complement her work in academic medicine. (Fun fact: in eighth grade, she built the entire set for a Robin Hood play, and held a role too.)
While her full name is Mbomda Léonella Jemison, for her artwork and creative projects, she primarily goes by Léonella. Léonella is based in the United States and is a proud member of the House Collective, a community for Black artists, creatives, and visionaries.
Léonella had her first public art event in April 2025, alongside fellow members of the House Collective, marking a major milestone in her journey from creating privately to sharing her work with a wider audience. Through her work, she hopes to connect with others who are navigating identity, creativity, and everything in between.
Léonella © 2025
