B'mac Art

The esteem battle. The war within. To know where our innermost anchor is hooked upon. Is it within ourselves or with something greater than us or something we are greater than? These questions we must ask ourselves to know if we are truly living; to understand the level of humanity left in us. These series tend to depict what our true reflection really is. Are we still as human as we are supposed to be? Can we still look up in the sky however the asymmetrical imperfections within and without us? Can our esteem be hinged on something greater; love? Can we re-write our anthropology? Every component in the composition is a reflection of what is in the girl. The girl represents humanity. Looking closely at the piece you would notice the asymmetry of the woods, wig, face, ear rings, shirt on the girl. The dry woods mean stagnation. These are to symbolize imperfections. This piece points us to the fact that we can still look up in the sky in search for something greater than us; aspi...

I'm glad the finished part of this piece came out beautifully. During the process I made few errors in the beginning which I was fortunate to correct eventually. I encountered some unusual challenges which I was able to summount. It wasn't an entirely fun ride but it all made great sense when I dropped the charcoal materials which I used as way to say "I'm finally done" . Using compressed charcoa enabled me to have a very dark background. My paint brushee helped on giving me a smooth skin texture. The charcoal pencils helped with the details. Ngozi, of course was still the muse for this piece. The work took me 5 days to complete. Another proof I and charcoal are best of friends (inserts a laughing emoji).

... My friends who had gone always came back with deformed bodies and sad tales. My closest friend, Bisi, told me that she died because there was no electricity in one hospital she found herself in. She died from heat. Another friend of mine, Emem, died in one horrible place located in Akwa-ibom. The community and her mummy and daddy killed her. They called her a witch. They said she was the cause of their poverty. I asked her if she was the cause and she looked at me and wept. Her face was filled with scars and her back showed signs of machete cuts. I held her and told her that everything will be fine but she shed more tears. Crying became her hobby. Nowadays, everyone called her crying beauty. I cannot forget Adamu too. We called him the golden child. After he visited that country, he came back mad. He was born in a state called Zamfara. He inhaled golden dust and died. It was said that his father and mother worked for an American company dealing in gold production. As the parent...

I decided to use Charcoal strictly on this piece. And it was a beautiful ride. I realized I'm faster when using the charcoal material. One of the advantages of charcoal is that it has great depth in drawings. I needed to very dark feel to portray the mood of the subject and charcoal did just that for me. Ngozi Chiadika who happened to be the muse for the art did justice to its portrayal. I can remember vividly that it was a day before the shot that I called Ngozi on phone to be the muse. She seamlessly obliged. She's one of those very loyal and understanding friends I have. She was the only person who came to mind when I was looking for someone to give a proper depiction of the art. It took me approximately 7 days to complete the piece. Every moment of the journey was fun.

"Ogbanje" It is a term in Igbo language  which was used to describe an evil spirit that would intentionally plague a family with misfortune. It also literally translate to children who "come and go", that is children who deliberately cause their family grief by dying some years (usually before puberty) after birth; hence repeating the cycle. In another context, this series is supposed to capture rejection at its core. That constant paradox of loosing others while winning ourselves; that usual life long phase of loneliness when one avoids conformity to societal standards and its mass manufacturing of same persons as well as other issues which other parts of this series will portray. . Being you comes with a significant amount of appraisal and rebuke or criticism. There's a network of people you have been created to influence. There's a network of persons you are to learn from or make better. The moment you start changing your core essence just because ...

I commenced the second part of the "Odan" series in Benin but had to continue it in Lagos. The major challenge I faced with this piece was having to move most of my materials from Benin to  Lagos. It was psychological uneasy but I had to proceed with completing the project. I chose to use graphite just like the first part. I have this love for black and white images. They're classic and they express this certainty and honesty. I wanted the work to portray just that and it did. The muse for this piece, Enisemo Gabriel, who happens to be the one for the first part really went the extra mile in depicting my idea for the work. All together, I spent a month and a week on this piece.

'Odan' is an Esan word which translates to 'struggle' in English language. . The title of this piece is 'becoming'. Most often, in our journey of becoming, there are usually huddles we often need to jump across; battles we must fight. Today, there are many voices. We are in the age of information. Everybody has a 'broadcasted' opinion about everything and who you're supposed to be and what you're supposed to do. There are these set of 'standards' the society has set in place that we must live up to and when that is not the case, depression and desperation set in. Should these standards define us? And there's that battle within; the constant battle of choosing between what is and what is not, what resonate with our essence and what doesn't. Let not our own voice be overshadowed. . Often when we set out to achieve anything, the universe usually throws its hands of trial upon us. These hands could hurt sometimes. But one thi...

I was in Benin City, Nigeria when I was creating this piece. The reference pictures were taken in Lagos. My stay in Benin was a temporary one so I had to begin the "Odan" project. I spent roughly 10 to 12 hours daily on the piece. It was indeed a journey of emotions. I ensured that beyond the strokes of pencils romancing the paper, there was an out pouring of various spectra of emotions on the piece so that hopefully the viewers would understand what I was trying to portray. In approximately a month, I was done with the work.

The first part of the "Odan" series. "Odan" is an Esan word which means "struggle" in English. The image depict struggle in whatever perspective you tend to look at it from. To me, this series depicts struggles in three major ways especially. This first image of the series depicts the current situation of the Nigerian youths. The Nigerian population consists of 60% of the youths. An average Nigerian youth is one bursting with vigour and a lot of promises. He is one who is hard working, hopeful, full of creativity, dynamism and ideas. But a lot of youths have their potential tied down by the system. The way Nigeria is, it is programmed to frustrate one's effort to self discovery and succeeding as a individual. The uprising of cultism, prostitution, and other vices in the country is becoming alarming. There are no jobs. The educational sector is nothing to write home about. The slots for admission into various tetiary institutions in ratio to...