We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Unyime Etuk a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Unyime, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I am happy to be an artist but I do get sad a lot of times. I have a lot of projects I would love to venture into as a creative but these projects need lots of money to finance it. And because I need money to push into these projects, I have been subjected to an artist who survives on commissions. I rarely create pieces which are inspired; I only work for clients and this takes a lot of time and sometimes, it can get really depressing knowing that there are things I could have done but because I need to not disappoint a client, I end up postponing and it makes me real sad. The creative path is one that should make a person feel free but Taking commissions has robbed that from me. This led me to a question as to how artist cope without taking commissions. What finanaces their creative journey. I haven’t found an answer to that yet. The few artist that I have asked this questions do tell me, get a passive income like selling prints, getting a youtube channel, selling art courses etc. But these answers do not actually satisfy my question because to do all these, you must have had money somewhere to get material/ supply needed to start this passive income businesses. I don’t wish to get a regular job; I so much want to be a better artist but I need to know how to make money apart from taking commissions. I think an answer to this will help change my approach to art and project me to stardom

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I born in 1993 in Uyo, Nigeria. I am a self-taught realistic pencil artist and a painter. My painting career was greatly influenced by Monsignor Gut, Miss Elisabeth and Sister Elizabeth Blok from poland, Who saw the potentials in me and encouraged me to be a versatile artist.

My style of drawing/painting is Impressionistic Realism. I have a believe that the process of art creation should be true and that each art piece created should reflect the energy that flows within the artist. So each artpiece I create is a reflection of my person, my undiluted energy, and what I believe in. I adopted this style of art because to me, this is the only style that could help me establish a perfect connection between my art and the world.

Many people have been important influence in my life. I am greatly inspired by Artists like Kelvin Okafor, Isimi Taiwo, Arinze Stanley, Marco Grassi, Peter Pharoah, Morgan Weistling, pieter Van der Merwe,Samantha Messias, Sheilargiovani, Shiely Lin, Pedrolopes, Chiamonwu Joy, Oswald Uruaikpa, Gottfried Helnwein, Kingsley Ayogu and many others. They have taught me that with patience, practice, and persistence, a whole lot can be achieved.

So, I create art which is greatly influenced by my energy, the society and the happenings around; and each art piece conveys a message which invites my audience to nature, truth and reality.

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

Yes!!! My goal is to have my works exhibited in top galleries of the world and I won’t stop till I get this realised

How did you build your audience on social media?

I have always been afraid to share my works on social media because I thought I wasn’t doing or good enough. But one day, I decided to post a reel of me working, and I got lots of engagement and encouraging comments. I was like “oh so they love my work” I decided to post more often and I saw my followers grow 150%. This taught me that whichever level you are, be proud of it, embrace it, and don’t hide it from people

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/etukunyime_art/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/etukunyime.art
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/c/EtukUnyimeArts
• Other: Whatsapp: https://wa.me/message/GM6JW22BXE6EC1