We were lucky to catch up with Kwadwo Adae recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kwadwo, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I’ve been drawing and painting since I was 7 but, I actually did attempt to be a normal person once. I spent 2 years working at an insurance company in a laughably futile attempt to pay down some of the astronomical student loan debt I accrued from college. It was awful, hour long daily commute in traffic jams; repetitive, unfulfilling, and mundane billing and customer service based computer work. I was absolutely miserable and hopelessly depressed in this corporate nightmare. One night I woke up from a disturbingly violent dream of causing physical harm to my boss, which I took as a sign that I needed to make some real changes to my life before I ended up on the news. I went into work the next morning and quit. No other job lined up, no plan on how I was going to pay bills or survive. I knew I just could not continue to live that life anymore. I went to this job fair in the City of New Haven and there was such a severe teacher shortage that you could be hired without having teacher certification. I grabbed my portfolio and resume, applied to be an art teacher, and was immediately offered teaching jobs at three different elementary schools. I choose the one that actually had a classroom. Teaching art paid $28k less than my previous corporate job, but I was no longer severely depressed. I could not afford anything, but I was doing something art related. Twenty years, one marriage, two sons, a graduate degree, and one divorce later, and I’m still an art teacher; but now it is at an independent art school that I founded and run as a full time visual artist and muralist.

Kwadwo, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Kwadwo Adae is a Ghanaian-American visual & muralist based in New Haven, CT. After earning his Masters in Painting from New York University in 2005, he became the Founder & Director of Adae Fine Art Academy; an independent art school that specializes in the individualized instruction of drawing and painting to children, teenagers, and adults. An award winning collaborative public artist responsible for the installation of seventeen murals in Connecticut since 2014, and has implemented the orchestration of three international collaborative mural projects with children in India, Guatemala, and Ecuador. Adae is strongly committed to contributing to the discourse of public art that amplifies the voices of the underserved by focusing his investments and public artistic endeavors in local communities that were subjected to discriminatory redlining policies. His domestic public art work speaks directly to themes of social justice, racial equality, women’s rights, gun violence, and environmental awareness; his international public art works focuses on the art of decolonization by amplifying the voices of the indigenous in places formerly subject to cultural erasure by European colonial powers. Adae works in collaboration with the Urban Resources Initiative, and whenever space permits, multiple trees are planted in front of his murals to increase the tree populations of our urban forests and make public art that also fights climate change.

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

The ability to bring something into this world that did not exist before you conceived of it with your mind, hands, and heart seems like a super power to me.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I think they are a sham. Just another plaything for people who are bored and have money and time to waste.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kwadwoadae.com/home.html
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kwadwo.adae/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kwadwoadae

Image Credits
Anthony DeCarlo