We were lucky to catch up with Desmond Kakulu recently and have shared our conversation below.

Desmond, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Q1. Yes I have.

Q2. Being a full time visual artist is like a gambling addiction, sometimes you win and most times the lost comes in form of a dry season of no commissions and no sales, but if you are truly called to it, you can’t quit. You can try but you will be miserable.
I started painting 5 years ago, but I believe my first year as an artist I did not lift a brush, I spent hours, days, weeks, months being fascinated and subsequently learning and watching from a great mentor of mine. He made the life of an artist look like something I have been looking for my whole life, and when I found it, it was like being introduced to a new drug, I was in love with everything about creating something from your imagination that only you can see but somehow you manage to get a hold of that thought long enough to bring it to life.
I began to spend more hours with him and went on mural commissios and for 2 years I did not make a dime from choosing that life, but I knew it was more than just about the money, it was a calling to serve. Art has the ability to heal and do more but in order for a piece to carry that much power, it must come from a higher place than just ones thought.
By the third year, I had given up and settled for a banking job as a front desk staff and the whole time I worked the job, I was miserable and frustrated and the only time I felt better was when I was painting, so I’d paint for just myself and report to work the next day, it was a conflicting battle and in the end, art won and just when I gave in, it was like a reward was sent, I started getting exhibitions and mural commissions and it felt great to earn from what everyone thought was a waste of time. This is my fifth year as a visual/mural artist and currently I have a list of collectors, my works are hanging in the UK and US, I have worked with prominent organizations and state governments. Like I said, being an artist is a gamble, I’m still learning how to manage the finances because of how unstable it is but I don’t think I could give it up even if I wanted to. I hope this answers your question elaborately.

Q3. Being an Artist is a process and a progress that ends when you die, I highly doubt I’d have a story if I changed anything or fast tracked it, it was out of my control anyway. There is no skipping any experience because it is from that source the artist has a story to tell.
With what I know now, I don’t think that I would have done it any different, maybe a few suggestions but like I said, it was out of my control.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My painting is a depiction to the evident reality of what Is
happening in Nigeria, Africa, and the world at large. I want
the world to see through my eyes what I see every day,
which is the life of an African man, the strife and struggle
of my people to find a way to make a living and have joy.
These are the things I paint.
To convey the inner meaning of my works, I replace the
common related objects with the heads of my models, not
limited to this concept of creation, I fuse in the mixed
media technique, using fabric as a representation to give
each piece a touch of culture and tradition to serve as a
reminder of where we come from.
These images have a one-way functional reaction, and I
imagine that if people were re-arranged in that order,
society may be more harmonious and well-organized.

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

This might sound crazy, but the first time I painted on canvas, I had an epiphany, sort of like a drug infused experience, the ecstasy of that feeling still lives rent free in my head, it was so intense I thought I was running mad but I got a hold of myself and ever since then I have been searching for that same experience, this and the need to be successful as an artist, to get my works seen, has been the driving power to my creative journey.
The mission and the goal remains the same, to store as much memories, information, cultures, ideas and beliefs of our current time and life’s experience so that the future has an insight on what it was like in our time.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Easy, having my works collected. For a person to see what I create and say wow, in want this, because there was a connection, a resonance between them and the piece. It is a gratifying satisfaction to feel like you were heard and seen by another, absolutely beautiful.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: desmondkakulu
• Other: Instagram is the only social platform I have been able to get myself active on, I prefer to spend more time working than scrolling and searching for buyers, they will find me when the time is right and I believe I will get involved with the others when the time is right,. For instance, this interview was a recommendation and that says a lot about what I do.