"My Push was Pain......I decided to pick up the pencil again and that was the turning point" Awotedu Atinuke, Visual Artist

Recently, we interviewed Awotedu Atinuke a visual artist on Attain. She shares her love for visual arts, the things that made her fully follow her passion and of course, some of her lovely drawings...

Story best enjoyed with a soft drink and popcorn... Lol

Please kindly tell us about yourself?
My name is Awotedu Atinuke Ololade and I'm a visual artist

Tell us about what your Profession and brand?

Visual art as the name implies is a creative art whose products are to be appreciated by sight. It encompasses a lot of areas such as drawing, sculpturing, painting and craft

What Inspired your venturing into this profession?

Its a talent I've always had and as we all do with talents when we were younger, I visited it on and off until 2018 when I left my teaching job to start a career in art. Majorly my push was pain. I was pained at having to earn a meager salary as a graduate. I was pained at having a boss who lacks respect for his staff...the list was endless and one day in 2018, i decided to pick up the pencil again and that was the turning point

What are the main challenges you have faced in your career?

At first glance, art is looked upon as not cost effective to begin with. When you venture into it, the first problem one easily encounter is not knowing the right tools. In art, there are variety of papers, pencils, erasers and so on. The second challenge was that these materials/tools were very expensive. There are erasers sold for nothing less than 8k... (Eg the electric eraser, mono Zero eraser) Some paper cost about 30k to buy a role....These are important tools that you see big artists using that makes their work great. Do for someone who's just starting, this was a challenge as I wasn't expecting to be spending close to 200k at first

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your career so far?

The biggest challenge was that most of these materials/tools aren't sold in Nigeria. Sounds strange right? The biggest art shop in Nigeria right now is Artworks at ojuelegba....

But there are a lot of tools you might have to order. Ordering and shipment makes your spending skyrocket....its crazy that you need ordinary pencil of 3k and ure spending almost that amount in shipment too

At what point did you begin to achieve success in your career and how did it happen?

Immediately. After posting my intentions to start art fully on social media, I got my first customer the next day. I under charged and spent a lot framing and all, but his patronage convinced me that art was what I wanted to do

What would you consider your greatest achievement since you started?

Being my own boss....trust me when you've had a verbally abusive person for a boss in the past, self employment becomes a big deal to you

Who has Inspired you the most? (Role Models and Mentors)
My father... He's the only role model I can think of in any situation

If you could go back in time, what are the changes you would have made in your journey?

I'd have listened to my friend who told me to start my own brand 7years ago....If under a year, I have improved my craft so vastly, imagine what 7 years would have done to me

What should we see you doing in the Future?

A series on war and abused women

What's your advice to someone just starting out or someone who intends to follow the same career path as yours?

Don't settle with bad art. Look for someone and learn even if its for a month.... The few weeks you would spend brushing up your skills is more than the years you would spend with trials and errors

What are your other interests? I'm a writer.... I still love writing just that art has greatly suppressed my writing skills

Connect with Awotedu Atinuke on Instagram: @sisi_painter87

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