B'mac Art

"Twisted" It is possible to remain astute admist twisted societal definitions. "All men are dogs" "All women are leeches" These and more definitions are the societal air we've been forced to breathe in. To be twisted is to be content with that supposed truth which you have been told about certain gender. It is the responsibility of everyone to leave the comfort zone of the definition of life we've had all the while and seek to verify these "truths" we claim to know. Are you still habouring the facts your mum told you about men? What about that of your dad? Have you verified these claims or are you defining every woman or man you see by those definitions. It is unfair to judge the public by the sin of a person or even a group of persons. We often do get what we expect from people; if you call a lion a goat for too long, your perception of his roar would be a bleat. . It is a twisted society we live in, must you be twisted with it? We ...

In the parameters of existence, there are two principles at play when it comes to human relationships. It is the intra-personal relationships and the inter-personal relationships. For we cannot give that which we don't have. The collective relationship amongst people in a locality is hugely dependent on the their self-relationships. If I don't properly know myself, I can't know you properly. If I don't understand myself, I can't understand you properly, how can I even understand you? If I don't love myself, loving you becomes an illusion. No human is entirely single, we are all connected. Our self actions always has a reflection on others, vice versa. For there are sparks in you you alone can't ignite except as a result of your relationship with some persons. There's a narrative to the universe. A narrative of of our individual stories intertwined within one another; different connected pieces forming a larger unified picture. The artwork shows the h...

Paradox . A paradox is often defined as a self-contradictory statement which can only be true if it is false. In the third installment of the Ogbanje Series; "paradox," which is the title of this piece, talks about a person. . Life is an Ogbanje in itself because it is full of contradictions. It's amazing how we only get to live when we leave ourself to the possibility of death. Isn't it a wonder to see that we only get to really enjoy the beauty, harmony, joy in friendship whenever we allow ourselves to be vulnerable. An Ogbanje is one who lives through these paradoxes. Life can be messy sometimes, our hearts get twisted by love. But how else do we live if we don't open our hearts to the possibility of of death; hurts and agony? . A seed only grows when it is buried. It rains just after the dry season. The morning shows itself after the night. The beautiful cry of the newly born baby is only heard after the pain of labour. . The image typifies a typical O...

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.