As a child, Marlou lived in Curaçao with her Brazilian father and a mother from Curaçao, until she moved to the Netherlands with her family when she was four years old. Coming from an artistic family, her artistic interest grew fully into motion once she attended Grafisch Lyceum in Rotterdam, and from there she has been creating visual arts in many forms. This includes paintings, photography and set design. Nevertheless, Marlou Fernanda uses her creativity as a vehicle to cope, express and connect to what she sees as her guideline, her authentic self.
In her work as an artist, Marlou Fernanda continuously questions the realities that she faces, which reflect the questions that are often inherent to growth and self-development. Questions like the meaning of happiness, or what it means to love somebody. Her focus on self, creates an interesting framework through which her work can be seen. Marlou’s work allows for an in-depth visualization on what it looks like for a Black woman to put herself first. Marlou defies the idea that Black womanhood is inherently an identity of self-sacrifice. Her work dismantles dominant ideas of identity and representation and navigates the difficult task of self-discovery. In her visual performance The World Can Wait (released in 2020) she engages with the topic of God, unwavering faith and family. This performance is an intimate view into her faith and the role it plays in her life. In Generational Anger (2022) she visualizes her views on racism, police brutality and inequalities and her role in creating change. In these performances, it is clear that Marlou Fernanda puts her inner voice at the center of her art.