ENGAGING DAMOLA ADEYEMO AND THE EVOLVING STITCHES OF HIS MEMORIES

From evolving a peculiar representational art style that seems to be stitched together from a mosaic of several oval shapes, Damola Adeyemo has etched his name in the local exhibition circuit as one of its promising younger generation artists. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports

With a riveting title like “Little Children Have Dreams Too”, Damola Adeyemo’s acrylic on canvas painting concerns itself less with reprising the timeworn aphorism alluding to children as the leaders of tomorrow. Rather, the painting depicting a baby in a blue tunic, curled up in a foetal position against a blue backdrop, cautions against discriminating against children or discouraging their ambitions. To the artist, every child is imbued with the potential to accomplish great things and nourishes within it dreams that continue to grow as it matures.

This could be his life’s story in a nutshell. When exactly, or how, he began to show early signs of becoming an artist may have been lost in the mist of time. Nonetheless, he could, from his faint childhood reminiscences, stitch together coherent vignettes. First, there was this childish propensity to draw, doodle or sketch on every available surface. Of course, this activity displeased the teachers enough to have him punished. Meanwhile, his proficiency became so evident that his apparent play with colours ended up passing for credible compositions. Then, whenever he ran out of papers to draw on, he would resort to drawing on the ground. Because the drawings were wiped away whenever people walked over them, he was often frustrated. It took the counsel of a discerning neighbour to get his mother to buy him an exercise book. “That boy would be happy seeing his drawings every day,” he recalls the neighbour telling his mother.

But it would be many years later when Adeyemo was a Senior Secondary 2 student at King’s Will Secondary School in Ile-Ife that fate steered his path towards choosing art as a career. It was his then literature teacher – a lady he remembers as Mrs Mary Ann – who upon seeing his drawing on the school’s noticeboard lauded his artistic talent and urged him to understudy professional artists to make his studying art in a tertiary institution easier.

This was how, after an arduous search, he had ended up beginning a period of tutelage under the painter Oyebanji Banjo in 2010 and later became the apprentice of the scrap metal sculptor and a painter called Dotun Popoola from 2012, after his Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations, to 2016.

Inspired by a painting, titled “Aso Ebi”, by Jonathan Imafidor at the Obafemi Awolowo University’s Master Studio, the Oyo State-born artist began to think about creating his own peculiar style of painting. “I loved his style of painting so much that I started thinking about creating my own style,” he says.

This was how his patented representational art style that seems to be stitched together from a mosaic of several oval shapes evolves. Of course, he continues to finetune this style as he matures. “We are now in an era where the art industry accepts and appreciates the uniqueness of the individual artist,” he explains. “This fact encourages me to stick to this style and, most importantly, it seems to resonate with most people who engage my paintings.”

As this style evolved, he also found himself becoming partial to painting with acrylic. Because this medium is a fast-drying and odourless one, he found it best suited to his style of painting. Not that his first experience with it was anywhere near encouraging. In fact, he even experienced doubts at a stage as to whether he could ever master it enough to a level expected of a professional artist. But with his persistence, he became more emboldened and defter with it.

This Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife diploma in fine and applied arts holder is currently concluding his final year studies as a student of fine and applied arts in the same university.

Nonetheless, making this career’s choice was no cake walk. His parents had other ideas about the course he ought to be studying. While his mother preferred his studying medicine, his father (a farmer) thought he should have chosen an agriculture-related course or economics. It took the intervention of Popoola to convince his parents to accept their son’s preference for the visual arts.

Popoola remained his motivator, whose encouraging words helped him stay the course. Just in a few years, Adeyemo familiarised himself with the local exhibition circuit and has been featured in several exhibitions and competitions. Among these were the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 editions of Ifectivity, an annual departmental exhibition for the Obafemi Awolowo University’s fine and applied arts students; the annual Life in My City Art Festival in Enugu, in which consistently featured among the top-100 artists and the 2015 annual National Art Competition organised by African Artists’ Foundation, among others.

For the 29-year award-winning artist, life as an artist has been exciting. Since his drawing “I Will Hold Your Hand through This” graced the Arts & Review section of THISDAY (on Sunday, April 19, 2020), the artist has continued to worm his way into the art industry’s consciousness. Talking about that drawing, it was featured in a 14-day challenge, during which each participating artist was expected to produce an artwork for each day of the initial 14 days of the federal government-imposed lockdown, which began on Monday, March 30. That challenge, tagged “The Artist Ladder 14-Day Art Diary”, was curated by an art promoter Blessing Azubike.

That work, he recalls, was conceived when fatigue from sleepless nights and discouragement had crept in on him on the 12th day of the challenge. “I had to encourage and motivate myself by remembering why I started it in the first place. Just as an eagle renews its strength, I got up and started to work.”

The 14 x 18 inches pen on chipboard drawing depicts two ladies in a warm embrace.