She’s perhaps best known for her portrait of Quanice Hayes, an unarmed black teen who was shot and killed by Portland Police in February 2017, which was carried by Don’t Shoot Portland and Black Lives Matter Portland protesters following Hayes’ death.

“He was a 17 year old. I was 17 at the time, actually. I had been working with Black Lives Matter Portland, very closely, but realizing how close to home it was....within 36 hours, I had created a piece which had gone a little bit viral,” Okamoto told the Portland Observer.

“We ended up having it printed and given to his family at his memorial. And to have that experience of being with his family and with his community, it kind of made me realize the power that art could bring,” she added.

That piece spurred more artwork surrounding the theme of social activism and Okamoto came to the realization that such portraits are a positive alternative to the outdated and incriminating mug shots that police often release to the media in officer-involved shootings.

“It was amazing to me and opened a lot of doors to realizing the potential of fine art in activism,” Okamoto recalled.

A few months later, in May 2017, when a man’s xenophobic and racist verbal assaults against two young girls on a Max train ended up costing the lives of two other men who were stabbed trying to defend the young women , Okamoto created a heartfelt portrait of one of the victims, Talisin Namkai-Meche. She worked closely with his family and again presented the finished portrait to them at Namkai-Meche’s memorial.

Okamoto also worked with the designer of the new Hollywood Max Station mural in commemoration of the incident on Northeast 42nd Avenue, created by Sarah Farahat, by helping Farahat paint the public art piece.

She’s also created works depicting Michael Brown, the 18-year-old unarmed black man who was killed by a police officer in 2014 in Ferguson, Mo., and of Eric Garner, the black man who died in Staten Island, New York after an officer put him a headlock while arresting him that same year.

Okamoto even had a surreal meeting with President Donald Trump, whom she calls a “demagogue,” in the White House over the summer as part of being honored as a presidential scholar.

Though she agonized over whether to even attend the meeting, as she views the President’s policies as counter to her mission as an activist, she ultimately decided to go.

But in order to show Trump was not “untouchable,” the young artist said she wore an all white outfit punctuated with the names of victims of police violence, the dates of their deaths, symbols of the indictment process, and the names of the officers involved if they were acquitted.

“I was asked multiple times to change by so many different people. But I stood my ground,” Okamoto remembered.

As a digital artist, the canvas for Okamoto’s art is electronic. She said she was happy to have discovered the medium given its proclivity for being able to be reproduced for protests.

“I started creating work for Black Lives Matter, which was a huge part of what I was passionate about. And I got in contact with Teressa Raiford, who runs Don't Shoot Portland, and I just started creating work with them,” the artist remembered.

“It's the perfect medium for our time today where there's such a big need for globalization of thoughts and idea around equity and diversity. Because we're in a digital age and you can just screenshot and share,” Okamoto said.

Okamoto moved around a lot as a kid. That, combined with the stress of living in a low socio-economic household under a single parent, caused her to struggle with some mental health issues later on. In 2007, she moved to Portland, the whitest major city in America, a transition that was difficult for her as a person of color, she said.

She said it was super-jarring, “Coming from New York City, this Mecca for diversity.”

In high school, Okamoto advocated for other classmates impacted by mental health issues. She volunteered as a suicide and crisis hotline operator and as student peer sex educator for Planned Parenthood in Portland.

Now, the young activist is back living in New York City as a volunteer eighth grade math teacher for AmeriCorps. She’s taking a gap year while taking a college course online before entering school full time for art at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

When it comes to activism, Okamoto gives a lot of credit to Raiford, who “passed the megaphone” to her, both literally and metaphorically, during last year’s Reclaim Dr. King March in Portland on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

During the April demonstration, Okamoto led the crowd in a chant and facilitated other kids’ testimony of experiencing racism or sharing their poems or songs.

“To be able to stand there and work with those kids and realize that even though you have the megaphone, passing it is the most important thing that I think someone can do,” she said.

For more information about Okamoto and her artwork, visit ameyamarie.com.

She’s perhaps best known for her portrait of Quanice Hayes, an unarmed black teen who was shot and killed by Portland Police in February 2017, which was carried by Don’t Shoot Portland and Black Lives Matter Portland protesters following Hayes’ death.

“He was a 17 year old. I was 17 at the time, actually. I had been working with Black Lives Matter Portland, very closely, but realizing how close to home it was....within 36 hours, I had created a piece which had gone a little bit viral,” Okamoto told the Portland Observer.

“We ended up having it printed and given to his family at his memorial. And to have that experience of being with his family and with his community, it kind of made me realize the power that art could bring,” she added.

That piece spurred more artwork surrounding the theme of social activism and Okamoto came to the realization that such portraits are a positive alternative to the outdated and incriminating mug shots that police often release to the media in officer-involved shootings.

“It was amazing to me and opened a lot of doors to realizing the potential of fine art in activism,” Okamoto recalled.

A few months later, in May 2017, when a man’s xenophobic and racist verbal assaults against two young girls on a Max train ended up costing the lives of two other men who were stabbed trying to defend the young women , Okamoto created a heartfelt portrait of one of the victims, Talisin Namkai-Meche. She worked closely with his family and again presented the finished portrait to them at Namkai-Meche’s memorial.

Okamoto also worked with the designer of the new Hollywood Max Station mural in commemoration of the incident on Northeast 42nd Avenue, created by Sarah Farahat, by helping Farahat paint the public art piece.

She’s also created works depicting Michael Brown, the 18-year-old unarmed black man who was killed by a police officer in 2014 in Ferguson, Mo., and of Eric Garner, the black man who died in Staten Island, New York after an officer put him a headlock while arresting him that same year.

Okamoto even had a surreal meeting with President Donald Trump, whom she calls a “demagogue,” in the White House over the summer as part of being honored as a presidential scholar.

Though she agonized over whether to even attend the meeting, as she views the President’s policies as counter to her mission as an activist, she ultimately decided to go.

But in order to show Trump was not “untouchable,” the young artist said she wore an all white outfit punctuated with the names of victims of police violence, the dates of their deaths, symbols of the indictment process, and the names of the officers involved if they were acquitted.