Monday, January 31, 2011

VICTORS or VICTIMS?





VICTORS OR VICTIMS? is my effort to ask the public a question of how the last decade has affected us. It's like a debate. It's an attempt to provoke thoughts and probe how the collective events and happenstances of the last decade has helped shaped people's identity and for us to figure out where we are headed as a people. I chose to represent this in different emotions focusing on the face because the face is most ideal when we think about representing one's identity.













The whole idea of its presentation is to have as many feel-good and painful facial expressions as possible packed in a grouped form so as to grip the viewers attention. In producing these works, I've chosen majorly to do them in watercolour because of it's spontenous nature. I fairly have an idea or a strong feeling I want to interpret but visualising it is an adventure...more like an unknown destination which adds to the whole essence.

The dripping technique came up in my bid to control the whole production process.
I so much like it because there's a strong emotion it evokes when one looks at each piece. It's a mix of freedom, joy, life, vitality as well as empathy, tears and so on.
Being facinated about this, I took a step further to experiment with gouache as well as charcoal and the result was like "Booom'!!!

On the other side, the hunger to develop my watercolour skills which I left for quite a long time and to study more of the human facial forms are part of what triggered the series.


Let's all enjoy!














18 comments:

adebanji said...

POWERFUL!- You have excellent control over your medium!
The series is excellent!
It would be nice to have a "feminity" show with you one day for naijah oh!
I really love these pieces, sensitive and full of rich colour!

Antwain Marcy said...

VICTORS

David Lobenberg said...

Again, I love your loose and very expressive watercolors and drawings.

Nnenna said...

Ibe, Thanks for sharing. These are lovely. I guess one question I have and I don't think you have shed much light on is: why are your subjects all female. That was my first observation. And I think you can give it a stronger content if you were to give some meaning to that. Does it have anything to do with gender issue/abuse? If it's just purely a conversation about emotions, then why don't you have a mix of genders and age groups? Just some thoughts. Keep up the good work...
Nnenna

ibeananabart said...

A zillion thanx Nnenna. you know what?... It hit me 1 day and I'm like "how come they are all female?" To be honest it's not a gender thing..it's general.- A convo on emotions. Thanks for pointing this out and your suggestion as well. Again thanks for expanding my thoughts on this. Truly appreciate!

M R Anand said...

the choice of colours, medium and the depiction of human face with its subtle expressions...a rare treat...fabulous!

AH said...

Excellente!

jay daduut said...

GOOD DAY SIR,
I CAME ACROSS YOUR WORKS AND THEY ARE SO LOVELY I HAD TO PERSONALLY COMMENT. IM ALSO AN ARTIST A SCULPTOR PRECISELY, BUT I BARELY PRACTICE NOW. ITS LOVELY WAT U DO. I HAD WRITTEN THIS WORDS EARLIER ON FACEBOOK: ' NEVER HAD COLOURS LOOKED MORE BEAUTIFUL ON ANYTHING ELSE THAN A PAINTING, BETTER YET A PAINTING OF A BEAUTIFUL AFRICAN WOMAN!!!!' I BELIEVE YOU MAKE THAT STATEMENT SO TRUE. LOVELY WORKS ONCE AGAIN. CHEERS. TANX FOR YOUR TIME.

ibeananabart said...

Hello Jay,
I so much appreciate.
Thanks so much for your time as well.

SHUBHANKAR ADHIKARI said...

Outstanding work of art.

Essienjoeart said...

Ibe I'd I'm real awe struck at all this wonderful paintings I have been opportune to see in it's full glory, i t sets me wondering if there can be a possibility of doing something together on our faces if you know what i mean.

minasek said...

I AM REALLY IMPRESSED DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY COS I AM TOO EMOTIONAL WHEN I SEE BEAUTIFUL PAINTINGS.I CAN JUST SIT THERE AND LOOK AT IT NON STOP. BUT WHAT I AM GOING TO ASK WILL BE STRANGE FOR YOU, ANYWAY.

I AM TRYING TO WRITE A BOOK BUT THE WAY I SEE MY BOOK I ABSOLUTELY WANT TO PUT SOME ILLUSTRATIONS ON IT. I KNOW I CAN4T AFFORD YOUR SERVICES. FIRST BECAUSE I LIVED IN LONDON AND SECONDLY BECAUSE I NEVER BEEN PUBLISHED BEFORE SO TIS MY FIRST BOOK BUT I WANT TO GO FOR IT EVEN IF EVRYBODY AROUND ME TRY TO DISSUADE ME; CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME ADVICE HOW TO CONVICE AN ILLUSTRATOR TO WORK WITH A NEWBIE WRITER? DON'T FEEL OFFEND PLEASE. GOD BLESS.

www.minasek.blogspot.com

Shawn Asala said...

Bro, you just set aflame my long abiding passion for art. I am also an artist but its been a couple of years since I last picked up a brush. i am more into photography now. I came accross the link to this site via http://www.creativeafricanetwork.com/.

I loooooooooove your work. And that is an understatement. What I wanna know is 1. How does one who is interested in getting some of your paintings for his home go about it. Second is: I run a art, design and photography studio (http://cognitostudios.blogspot.com) Are you interested in selling your work here in Abuja? If so, please contact me (http://www.creativeafricanetwork.com/person/42697/en)

Cheers

Britt said...

Stunning and powerful! I am in love with your work! I rarely go so far as to say that. I'd love to see your pieces some day, you do an excellent job of capturing emotion.

Von K. Fedoroff said...

I "discovered" your work thru PangeasGarden tumblr page. I love what you are doing. Technically, emotionally, "spiritually" - your pieces are some of the best things Ive seen in years. Please keep posting your works! Best of luck to you!

Joyeeta Neogi said...

Fantastic artwork! You are super talented! Love all your amazing artwork! I have joined your blog! Again ...very expressive with rich colors...outstanding work! Best wishes
Joyeeta.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I LOVE the colors and the expressions of these paintIngs. You can have a conversation about them for days! Love it!!!

How does one go about purchasing

Krueger, Marita said...

Your faces are absolutely stunning. As I do watercolors myself
I deepla admire your style and technique, the way you put those
wonderful strong Colors on the paper and then it comes all together
to be a face.
Wonderful work!
Marita