Scoop: Are you a full time artist?
Taiwo: Yes I am
Scoop: How long does it take you to complete a portrait?
Taiwo: It depends on d complexity of the picture. Drawing women with
braided hair or wearing native clothes with outrageous designs will
take much longer to render than a man with low cut hair wearing a
T-shirt. Nevertheless I would need at least 1 week notice.
That is why I prefer to see d picture first before concluding on what
to charge or how long it would take to do it.
Scoop: Have you done any exhibition before?
Taiwo: I have done an exhibition before with terrakulture and with d
SNA. They were joint exhibitions. I'm planning on a solo by next year
by Gods grace.
Scoop: What's your experience with exhibitions been like?
Taiwo: You sell sometimes. You don't sell sometimes. There's
competition in the market and its pretty hard to tell what buyers are
really looking for. The galleries charge high so it starts to look
like solo exhibitions are meant for only rich artists while poor
artists are forced to use alternative spaces or shelf their works by
the road side which doesn't earn them a reputable position in the art
world. Exhibition for me is good thing especially when exhibiting with
other artists. But I've been advised lately by top artists in the game
to stage a solo exhibition. A successful solo can earn an artist a lot
of achievements n a good name.....and its name that sells. My
experience has been fair.
Scoop: Is having an exhibition the only way you feel you can promote your name?
Taiwo: Certainly not. But its been d foremost traditional,
professional and reputable form of advertisements and still is because
the age of the internet galleries haven't cut across the age bracket
that buys art more frequently yet. Nevertheless, online exhibition is
gaining ground by the years so its certain dat artists shouldn't
ignore its possibilities of its dominance soon.
Using social networks like facebook, instagram etc are the quickest
ways to generate popularity. But I've noticed dat the big artists and
the big buyers are not in such common places very often.
Scoop: What else do you do apart from portraits?
Taiwo: I'm versatile. I also do landscapes, seascapes using other
medium like watercolour, acrylic, gouache, etc. I also do
illustrations for novels n schools books, 3d modelling n animations,
Logo designs, album covers, picture Photoshop manipulations etc. Also
wall mural and designs. A few other unpopular things too but I quickly
latched on to what was moving faster at d time I started drawing which
was portraiture.
Scoop: Did you say you do graphics?
Taiwo: Yeah
You can view Taiwo Isimi aka Isimism works at
wowyard.com/yards/Isimi%20Taiwo%20(Isimism)
