Ibrahim, the self-taught artist

I came across Ibrahim on LinkedIn when he dropped a message in my inbox advertising his works and inquiring if I was interested in acquiring some of his pieces for my home or office. I decided to inquire further about his works and requested for his brochure. Although am yet to get one I felt, why not share his story with others?

Here is a short piece of the interview I had with him mainly through email interactions.

Why art?

Art, because for me it’s the only thing on earth as old as man that doesn’t discriminate or judge, and I believe with it I can make a difference.

What drives you?

First and foremost God and secondly, my doubters.

God, because I see everything He has created as a piece of art from which I derive my inspirations from.
When I say I have a lot of doubters to prove wrong, I mean it in a positive sense. Not everyone will believe in what you do. In the past I’ve had people say I will not get anywhere with my art career and because of that I never gave up. It was this desire to prove them wrong that has helped me to come this far.

” Everyone has what it takes to paint the world just as an artist paints on his canvas.”

Ibrahim

What are the challenges you encountered and how did you manage to overcome them?

As a self-taught artist, raising money for art supplies was my greatest challenge and in the past, I have always neglected my love for art in search of jobs in factories. These experiences have had both positive and negative impact on my art career.

The talent has always been there but nurturing it required a lot of dedication. After my secondary education at O’Reilly senior high I wanted to learn how to paint since what I was taught was mostly theoretical. Unfortunately, the artist who was to teach me told me an artist I know had informed him to turn me down whenever I came over. It was a surprise to me since I had not discussed these plans with any other person. Irrespective of this, he was still ready to take me on but I didn’t return as I felt discouraged. It was at this point that I decided to learn on my own by practicing.

I was able to finally raise money for my art supplies by doing pencil portraits for friends online via Facebook.

How do you use your art for charitable purposes?

I live in a rural area in the central region of Ghana, where I see lots of children of school going age that due to no fault of theirs don’t have formal education. So what I do is to bring them together to teach them how to draw and paint. I use part of the money I get from my art sales to buy art supplies for them.

I believe working with children is like planting a seed.

Art piece completed by one of the kid’s under his tutelage

Word of advice or motivation

” Everyone has what it takes to paint the world just as an artist paints on his canvas.” It means that everything in life is beautiful depending on who is looking at it.

Samples of his artwork

 He currently has two kids under this tutelage and his paintings cost between GHS500 to GHS5,000. If you are interested in purchasing any or supporting any of the kids you can contact him directly through a phone call or email.

Contact details

Phone number:  +233 547 115 079
Email: myartmirrorkoncept@gmail.com

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/artistsforhumanityint/