We were lucky to catch up with Nnamdi Okonkwo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nnamdi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

Every good thing takes time. Earning a full time living with my art had been my goal from day one. It took some time to get there, more time that I had anticipated, but the learning along the way was priceless, and could not have been gained any other way. The pain though, I could do without, but like they say, the crown and thorns go together!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was born in Nigeria but came to the United States in the late eighties to attend college, courtesy of a basketball scholarship. Back in Nigeria, I had always been drawn to art but only made my first serious attempt to study it, thanks to the encouragement of my mother, when I was about 17 years of age. My interest then was in painting but quickly changed when I took my first sculpture class soon after I arrived in America. Since graduating with an MFA degree in sculpture from Brigham Young University, I have continued to learn and have been blessed to be able to make a living through my art. My good wife deserves a lot of the credit, for I wouldn’t have been successful without her full support.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My real goal as an artist is to populate the world with small, and large outdoor sculptures that will each be a tangible sermon, a monument to the idea that there’s a sublime Peace, Love and Joy possible in spite of the trials of everyday life. Each work, I hope would be like the cathedrals of old, pointing upwards, and manifesting, albeit imperfectly, heavenly glory on the earth.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn is that the secret to success is not hard work alone. I thought I was going to be successful because I didn’t think there was a more hard working person alive. But I soon had to redefine for myself what success really meant. For me I wanted more things than money or fame. It took me a while but I eventually learned that hard work does not involve killing oneself with work or hurting others because of the same.

In fact the hard work one must do includes the work of truly loving those within the circle of one’s influence. I learned that when the needs of others are properly taken into account, there’s a power which comes to aid one in the realization of one’s dream. Love for others in combination with honest work, is an unstoppable force.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nnamdiart.com

Image Credits
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