We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dakarai Akil. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dakarai below.

Dakarai, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Art is a language I’ve been speaking since I was child. I’ve been through many phases within art trying to find the right medium to fit me. Starting with drawing, then on to crafting things from cardboard to graffiti, fashion and illustration. Once I finally landed on collage in my early twenties I knew I had finally found “the one”. At the time it resinated with me because it lended itself to a personality trait that can be either a gift or a curse for me which is a lack of patience. When I was painting, the main thing that held me back was how long it took me to see the finish product. If I didn’t see it coming together by the time my inner flame burnt out then I was less motivated to complete the painting. This could be in a matter of days to one week.

My collage style in nature was a much quicker process. I could see a great finished product in 30min – 1hr. This speedy process stuck with me for years and has lead to some great works. But as recent as mid-2022 I realized I was losing interest in this nearly 12 year old process I had built with collage. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was that was holding me back.

So I was in a creative funk for months. Nothing I made was satisfying. I would sit at my art table for days trying to create something that sparked that familiar feeling I had when making a collage I was really proud of but it just wasn’t happening for me. Finally, one day I made a collage that was way different than any other collage I had ever made. This piece surprised me because I had challenged every piece of my usual process and forced myself to look at it another way. Typically my compositions are very densely packed into each other and spreading out from the center. This new piece utilized that method but only for the absolute center. Outside of that I started to open it up and utilize the negative space which wasn’t common for me. After this collage I had been chasing that feeling ever since which caused me to create a new style for myself over a decade into the medium. Now, the collages you see me making today look more evolved and thoughtful than in previous years.

What I learned from this is the best way to progress with your personal style is to challenge yourself constantly. This can be by setting up daily challenges for yourself to rethink your usual process or even forcing yourself to work within new parameters. Doing so could lead to a totally new understanding of yourself and what can be done with your craft.

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.

My name is Dakarai Akil. I’m originally from Cleveland, OH but currently based in Los Angeles, CA. Art has been my passion since I was little. My father was a multidisciplinary artist that put me into art classes at Cleveland Museum of Art as early six years old. Professionally, I’ve been working for a little over ten years now as a collage illustrator and artist. I found collage after years of boredom in fashion and graphic design. Studied at the art institute of Pittsburgh for two and a half years but ultimately felt out of place in fashion. I discovered collage when I saw a couple collage artists galleries on Tumblr. This medium had never crossed my mind as serious form of art until then so I decided to give it a try. After making my first collage I fell in love with it.

Fast forward 12 years later I’ve now self-published three art books and currently working on a fourth. My work has been published in The New York Times, WIRED magazine, New York Magazine. I’ve designed collage mural concepts for Serato, created works for Netflix, Tubi and many other brands.

What my collage style provides these brands with is a visual summary of a story they’re telling. We are able to bring together the highlights of these stories and bring them together in a composition that speaks to whomever is listening (reading).

Today, I’d have to say I am most proud of the mural design I came up with for Serato’s HQ in New Zealand. This was a huge honor for me because music has always been one of my top motivations for the work I create. With Serato being a leading face in music software specifically in the production/DJ space, I personally connect to this from my love for hip hop and sampling. My collage style is a form of sampling. Taking images and recreating whole new world views using what I can find. The design I created for their HQ is a look into that world.

What I want people to know about my work is that what I am doing is creating a visual language to communicate to you on a deeper level. This language is void of words but rooted in images taken from past moments that work to connect us all together.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The beauty of artists is our ability to feel and communicate those feelings. What comes with this is a new to follow those feelings which can mean switching gears entirely, and that is 100% ok. In fact, its necessary. Before I discovered collage I was a digital illustrator and painter. My work was loved by my day one supporters who bought prints, t-shirts, and canvas work. My work was a bit of surrealism mixed with a slight pop art feel to it. At that time in my life that was where my mind was. I hadn’t quite put my finger on a world view just yet but I was on my way to it. My art reflected this needless to say. But once I discovered collage and started to add my own methodology to it, this changed. For a brief moment I was doing collage while still painting and illustrating. This made for a lot of mixed media pieces involving collage, painting and illustrating. But as time went on I started to lose interest in painting and illo. and lean more into becoming solely a collage artist. This confused my core base of support and was a little off putting at first because they didn’t fully understand it yet. But I felt it in my soul that I had just discovered magic for myself and I believed so deeply about what I was feeling that I eventually abandoned the other mediums all together. People enjoyed my collage work here and there but it took a couple years for my supporters to get fully onboard with it. Ultimately I bet it all on what I felt was right for me and that is a decision I will never regret.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is our ability to communicate beyond words. I’ve taken my work to countries where I cannot speak their language but whats being communicated through the art is understood on a deeper level. This is one of the greatest joys I have in life. Having the opportunity to travel the world for art and connect with people I otherwise would never have the chance to connect with from something that comes so natural to me. This is the beauty of being an artist for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dakaraiart.com
• Instagram: @dk1994
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dakarai-akil-4b75391b9/
• Youtube: @dakaraiakil