Emmanuel Eweje
Growing up as a child, I was influenced by my mum’s profession which is weaving and crocheting in the early 90s. I was immersed in the general mindset then that the creative arts were more of a hobbyist’s diversion than a career path for the serious-minded person. The very few artists I knew as a child worked at roadside craft shops, cranking out cheap signboards, banners and posters while barely able to earn a decent living.
Yet, I spent more of my early life helping my mum in her weaving works and sketching objects around me However, when it was time for me to choose an undergraduate program, I dithered between the disciplines of Engineering and Fine Arts. Still haunted by the “poor artist”image from my childhood, I figured that becoming an engineer would make me more recognized professionally, able to afford a comfortable lifestyle.
On the other hand, having experienced a preview of what Engineering is via a brief stint studying Technical Drawing as a high school subject, I decided that engineering was too structured for me as a creative being that had grown to value the freedom of artistic expression. In the end, fueled by my primal inclination towards what I considered “the pure art”, I opted for Fine art as a course. My artistic journey began to pay off after I bagged a second class(upper) Bachelor of Arts(B.A) degree in Fine Arts(Textile art) from the Obafemi Awolowo University(OAU), Ile-Ife in 2016.
In the same year that I obtained my college degree, I joined Mufu Onifade’s increasingly-popular visual arts movement tagged “Araism art movement”. I derived my own signature by using thread as my medium of expression rather than the conventional use of acrylic. I also employ the use of Yoruba motifs to symbolically communicate to the viewer.
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