In a Dream, I Find My Way Back to You

59,4 x 84,1 cm

In a Dream, I Find My Way Back to You

The missing pieces of a broken family unit and a memorial of what once was. The painting above was done in an alternative art style that I usually reserve for my sketchbooks, as it is more impulsive and playful in its nature, however, I use this colourful art style in juxtaposition to a more profound assessment of the family unit. The work tells a story of a last-born daughter (she is the only one with fully pink eyes in the painting) looking back at her family as they go through the passage of time and disappear into the shadows of a dream and the oval shaped time-capsules that are repeated throughout the painting. The twisted palm tree is a representation of an intertwinement between life and death, or more specifically the land of the living and the waters of death. Within the painting, our central figure who is also the youngest daughter is the only figure that is somewhat complete, unlike the other two daughters who disappear behind two colourful time capsules and the father figure who appears whole but below his chest area has the rest of his torso missing. I wanted the work to playfully depict a serious topic of a family broken apart by death, and this is symbolised by the waters that bleed from the bottom of the painting ,depicting the dream, into the space above the figures head, which is the remembrance of the dead in the land of the living, while the flame connecting the palm tree to the large figure is a recurring representation of “The Flame of Life” both within this work and another painting that I have done in a similar art style.

In My Mother’s Garden

The work above is a painting of my mother how I see her. Within the painting she is surrounded by plants, mainly palm tree leaves and “mother in-laws’ tongue” leaves. I wanted her to be framed by the leaves and for each leaf to be pointing back to her as the centre of the painting. Beneath her figure is my gaze which is depicted using gold and copper leaf, as an illustration of the traditional Yoruba saying that “A Mother is Gold”, hence, I wanted my gaze, which is intended to be directed at my mother to reflect gold and copper and things that glitter even beyond the surface. My use of plants in the painting is reflective of my mother’s garden in Lagos, as I often find myself using plants in my work as a symbol of her love and presence. Furthermore, the choice of plants used was equally intentional, as the palm tree is significant in the sense that it provides palm oil, palm kernels, palm wine, and so on, which is an allusion to the duality of great things that my mother is to me, as well as the make up of the tree, alluding to her presence as a source of sturdiness and protection over me. I also used the leaves of the “mother-in-law’s tongue” as an expression of the knowledge she continues to pass unto me, because the plant was one of the first plants that she taught me the name of that I still remember. Within the painting, she poses in a regal manner, wearing a bright iro and buba (traditional top and wrapper) made of Ankara with an ipele (the fabric over her shoulder)made of aso-oke (a handwoven Yoruba fabric), facing the unseen with an expression of calm on her face —she is prepared for what is to come, though it is still somewhere in the distance.