Dreamer: Painting a picture of the resilient African young adult, hungry for success amidst many odds.
I give you "Dreamer" (2018/2019), done for countless hours spread across several months. The overly extended happy and sour process of making this helped me grow and learn a lot in my personal life. Take a minute to understand my viewpoint as regards this piece. A little story about the art I had randomly taken the reference photo (a selfie) during my government mandated service year at Katsina state, a long way away from home. It wasn't until much later after I had returned home from serving my country that I stumbled on the picture in my gallery and saw it in a whole different light. I saw this strong gesture of Hope in my face surrounded by a lot of relatable items. I decided to make art out of it as best as I could. It was quite the challenging process, especially the hat which must have taken over 100 hours to make it look hyper-realistic. There were several breaks, some for months at a stretch due to other commissioned drawings, some laziness (I have to admit), art ...