Jamila grew up in New England, though the journey of her spirit seems to have traversed much of the Eastern world before arriving in Boston. She moved to New York City in 2004 to study English and American Literature with a focus on Poetry and the Renaissance, including Middle Eastern, Gender and Women's Studies. After moving to Brooklyn in 2008 and returning to the world of visual art, her research also incorporated religion, spirituality and the various physical sciences. She relocated to New Mexico in summer 2011, lulled by the desert, inspired by the sky.

Jamila's mixed media works marry the painted picture with recycled, organic and synthetic materials. Whether plant matter or manmade textiles, the 3-dimensional texture of her pieces is a frequent metaphor for the fabric of physical reality; the undercurrent of her various series being the nature of consciousness. Also a poet and essayist, her approach to creation blends the power of thought and image - her words and visual works inspire one another in a symbiotic relationship. For the written word and graphic picture are one and the same, as painting is silent poetry (Plutarch).