We recently connected with Jacqueline Suowari and have shared our conversation below.

Jacqueline , appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

At the beginning of every new year, my parents would ask that my siblings and I, make a list of the things we wanted to achieve in the new year.
The goals would range from seemingly mediocre goals to mind blowing ones; anything could make the list, as long as it was geared towards making us better. We would all gather in our living room and discuss how we intend to achieve these goals and my parents would encourage us to pursue them.

This fueled us & made us start the year with a purpose, whilst looking forward to the end of the year, when we would be asked to give account of how well we did, achieving our goals; why we failed at any, and what we needed to do better.

This habit of setting goals and the thrill of achieving them unbeknownst to me or my parents, became an essential part of my growth as an adult.

I have been blessed with knowing who and what I wanted to become since I was five years old and every step I have taken in my life has been in the direction of my dreams. Every year, I set new goals and targets; some of them spill into the next year but this doesn’t deter me. Some of them seem impossible at the time I set them; nonetheless, walking in the direction of those goals helps to bring them to fruition. In most cases, I’d have achieved something before I realize that it was once a goal on my list and so, I am encouraged to set more goals because I know that they definitely do come true,0 if you keep walking towards them.

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?

Jacqueline Suowari is a Multidisciplinary Artist. Her journey into art started from the early age of five and for the past decade, she has stunned her ardent collectors and global audience with magnetic pieces which over time, have grown larger than life.
Jacqueline is motivated by the intriguing art of drawing; she is inspired by identity and
subliminal human emotional expression and responses, as they influence perception and communication.
The thousands of ballpoint pen strokes which make up every single drawing she produces have become the core of her
ideologies, thus revealing the countless hours which it takes to achieve perfection in her eyes, with a single piece sometimes taking several months to complete.

In recent times, she has expanded her practice to include video
and sculptural installation, alongside painting and performance and with each piece, she combines various elements
of design to share her experiences and inspiration with the audience.

Jacqueline has participated in several group exhibitions and fairs locally and internationally. She has been a
recipient of several awards, and has been featured on the CNN ‘Inside Africa’ documentary, CNNStyle, Forbes Africa and many more international media. She has
also been on several international publications including “Ballpoint Art; Complexity from Simplicity” by Sandu
Publishing, which features a select number of Ballpoint Pen artists from around the world, as well as
Chukwuemeka Ben Bosah’s book, “The Art of Nigerian Women”, which chronicles some of the best of Nigeria’s
artists, living and working today. Recently, she launched a comprehensive publication, “Jacqueline Suowari;
A Journey Through Time”, an exposition of her work spanning the last ten (10) years, with essays from well
established art curators and professionals within and outside her birth country, Nigeria.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I have had to unlearn the idea that “Quantity automatically translates to Quality”.

As an undergraduate studying Fine Art, I often thought that the more paintings I was able to produce, the better I would become at painting. My lecturers would always advise that I slow down and take my time to create the pieces, but it was such a struggle to heed their advice.

Many years later, working as a professional artist, I have been able to come to terms with that piece of advice, especially with the realization that drawing with the ballpoint pen is my calling, and it requires time & painstaking effort. In order to achieve the monumental pieces I began to create, I had to learn patience and that was when I realized that it wasn’t about the number of paintings but the quality of the paintings produced.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Why you act the way you do – Tim Lahaye Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jacquelinesuowari.com
• Youtube: Jacqueline Suowari
• Yelp: [email protected]

Image Credits
Avant Gallery CapturedbyDuk Harinox Photograhy Ginstar Photography