We were lucky to catch up with Dogon Krigga recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Dogon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I came into my craft taught by Self. That approach provided me with my greatest attribute; finding solutions. Learning this craft through my own devices honed my skills and brought me to a unique understanding of how to organize the pieces and elements of my creative endeavor into a cohesive and aesthetically pleasing end result. This approach to creation has proven itself invaluable whether I am creating a new piece for a gallery exhibition, a branding kit for a new business, or a monument sign for a housing development. Almost 2 decades of rigorous study, pondering, commissions, and conferring with peers, mentors, and learning tools from various sources opened up the pathway of mastery and understanding of my craft. This has now put me in a position to illuminate the path of younger artists and designers who seek the same.

Dogon, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My creative philosophy is to combine knowledge of different industries, practices, cosmologies, and disciplines to create unique and immersive experiences for those who choose to engage with my art.

I came into graphic design by starting an underground music blog in 2007 with my best friend. Funds were almost non-existent, but the passion and drive was there. So we taught ourselves how to use Joomla templates, WordPress, GIMP, and eventually Adobe Creative Suites to create our blog. It was there that I realized I had a knack for design. Over the course of the next few years, the forum connected to our blog grew in popularity, and was rich with young musicians eager to drop their first project. That opened up an opportunity to create commissions for other artists for their album art. This led to me taking on more clients in the indie music scene. This gave birth to Makrigga Media, and eventually became Art By Krigga. My work began to garner attention through social media and granted me my first opportunity to show my work in a gallery setting as a part of a group show with an art collective that has grown to do some very incredible things.

Outside of visual art, I also expanded my client base to business owners, artists and organizations that needed marketing materials and branding. I then learned how to properly design a logo, along with typography and design theory to meet the needs of the commercial community. This opened the door to learning commercial printing, wide format printing, apparel design, branding, and commercial signage. The skills and tools I learned in this industry transfer directly to my artistic practice with the softwares, materials, and processes I use to meet the needs of my clients.

With this knowledge, and over a 3-4 year span, I was able to conceptualize and design my first tarot deck, The Antique Blacks: A Rootworker’s Tarot. The stellar reception of this deck has prompted me to conceptualize more Tarot decks that are currently in production, and will be available to collectors and readers worldwide by next year.

The principles of collage have always been at the root of my creative process, so as I discovered my voice and aesthetic as a visual artist, I continued to work with collage in various mediums, primarily digital. When I was ready to come off the screen and into a physical space, I sought to provide depth and texture to creations that would otherwise only live as a flat print. Now, I create dynamic installations with collage, found objects, and murals that invoke a whimsical and historical appreciation for Black culture and all the ways it expresses itself across the African diaspora.

Music was the foundation of my career as a visual artist and designer, and creating art for albums and designs to promote music will always be a cornerstone of my practice.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

The spontaneity of inspiration and the non-linear journey has reshaped my world view and creative process. Some of my greatest ideas occur randomly in the middle of conversation with friends, or thoughts about a completely unrelated topic. When that lightbulb moment pops up, I have to lean into the idea and flesh out the basic concept then store it away to be utilized at another time. I implore other creatives to submit to the will of spontaneous inspiration, and always give yourself the space to dive into whatever stirs your imagination. Ideas do not always occur in a vacuum, but require stimuli from various sources.

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

I had to learn the merit of collaboration and unlearn the DIY mentality in order to expand my creative output. Essentially, even though I have the ability and knowledge to produce so many things on my own, I have to trust my colleagues’ abilities as well. Resources grow through circulation, so I’d rather pay someone to provide a service that they are proficient in in order to grow my practice and alleviate the pressure and pain points of doing it myself. Outsourcing certain labor not only creates community and strengthens networks, but also provides a more polished end result because everyone on the team can better focus on a small portion of the big picture.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.artbykrigga.com
• Instagram: @artbykrigga
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/artbykrigga
• Twitter: @artbykrigga
• Other: @theantiqueblackstarot on Instagram

Image Credits
Thomas Hammond, Mahkia Greene, Thinking Kingdom, Nori Noir