We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paulcy Odama a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Paulcy, appreciate you joining us today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?
While practicing as a Doctor, you learn how to take your time to avoid error. Additionally some medical procedures are very similar to artworks , your mind and hand control have to be in sync. You also learn how to have self discipline, wake up on time, think quickly in emergencies, see patients at appropriate periods and study for exams.
Although it can be tough, practising molds you to be sharp, have self discipline and teaches you a lot of patience. This life skills have been very helpful in my creative journey as learning any new skills can be difficult especially taking the self taught route.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am Paulcy odama, an Abuja based self taught artist from Cross River Nigeria. Original trained as a Medical Doctor with 5yrs of experience, I found my way back to my passion art. The Covid 19 pandemic was a very hard time for most of the world and me, so I started using art as a form of therapy to help me during that period. I initially picked it up as a hobby but I started falling in love with drawing and the freedom that came with it.
For the past four years I have experimented with a lot of mediums but I currently work with acrylic paint and oil. My art delves into the human experience exploring stories of death, love, sacrifice and transformation. My work explores the profound impact of choices we make in life as well as those made for us by natural order of the world. I also love adding a little bit of medical knowledge into my art to make it not only beautiful but informative.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Being a creative you are able to connect with people and share experiences. They are times where you visibly see people heal from your art piece. This the most rewarding aspect of being an artist for me.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
This is actually a funny story. When I started painting I was afraid of what people would say, so I opened a different instagram account with a blurry picture and my traditional (not widely known) name, and I also signed all my painting in Russian, just to feel it out for sometime. After getting some positive feedback and confidence I decided to start posting paintings on my personal account.
It’s okay to not be as confident at first. Take your time, be patient with yourself and the algorithm. Also try to be consistent once you are confident enough to put your work out there.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drpaulcysart/
