Quotes by Toyin Odutola - Page 1

I needed to create something I could take with me wherever I went.
Toyin Odutola /
Needed
Wherever
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I kept wanting to push my image as validity; I wanted to see my portrait on a wall and know it was okay.
Toyin Odutola /
Okay
Portraits
Validity
Wall
Portrait
Push
Wanting
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I dont think about race before I start drawing. I think about how to make that mark to fit whatever purpose I need it to fulfill.
Toyin Odutola /
Drawing
Race
Thinking
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I don't think about race before I start drawing. I think about how to make that mark to fit whatever purpose I need it to fulfill.
Toyin Odutola /
Drawing
Mark
Fulfill
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The graphic style itself is influenced by a lot of very layered and detailed comics that I read as a kid, like Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue.
Toyin Odutola /
Kids
Style
Vagabonds
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Being a black artist, the first thing people want to talk about is your blackness, the importance of your blackness and your black presence.
Toyin Odutola /
Artist
Black
People
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The graphic style itself is influenced by a lot of very layered and detailed comics that I read as a kid, like 'Vagabond' by Takehiko Inoue.
Toyin Odutola /
Graphic
Comics
Detailed
Influenced
Layered
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Being a black artist, the first thing people want to talk about is your blackness, the importance of your blackness, and your black presence.
Toyin Odutola /
Artist
Black
Blackness
Importance
Talk
First Thing
Presence
The First Thing
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I'm really interested in independent publishers and memes and mini comics. But even before that, I was interested in Japanese manga and anime.
Toyin Odutola /
Anime
Memes
Publishers
Japanese
Manga
Mini
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For a while, I was nervous about portraying women because of the objectification that automatically comes with it, whether the artist intends or not.
Toyin Odutola /
Artist
Nervous
Objectification
Portraying
Automatically
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I moved around a lot when I was a child; two of the houses I grew up in have totally disappeared. One was burnt in a riot, and the other was pulled down.
Toyin Odutola /
Children
House
Riot
Two
Burnt
Disappeared
Houses
Pulled
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It is hard to produce work in New York. You kind of have to center yourself - do some Zen meditation exercises and just focus. It is very distracting, and money, of course, is an issue.
Toyin Odutola /
Exercise
Focus
Meditation
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My identity is not based on performance; it's based on something that's pre-determined by someone else, and I don't even understand what that is because I'm an African who came to America.
Toyin Odutola /
Identity
African
Based
Performance
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When I was in school, I conceptually didn't want black people to have context, to take it out of all that history. I wanted nothing to indicate where they are or what time it is, to place them anywhere.
Toyin Odutola /
Context
Indicate
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It's kind of a language I've developed over time that's basically breaking up the face into components and planes. Inside each plane, I draw gradation marks, and when planes come together, they form sinews, a hairlike weave that's like a landscape of the face.
Toyin Odutola /
Components
Form
Landscape
Time Together Face
Inside
Basically
Breaking
Breaking Up
Developed
Draw
Marks
Plane
Sinews
Weave
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Kerry James Marshall especially was a huge influence on me in graduate school, as were Wangechi Mutu and Julie Mehretu. These artists are titans. My education was also very much in comic books, so I've been going to comic book events in New York and have met a few artists there.
Toyin Odutola /
Artist
Book
School
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The social media bit is really about documenting process. I like the dialogue if it's constructive, but I'm now at a crossroads. I've accumulated a lot of followers, and it's great, but I'm also at that teetering point where people are feeling themselves a little too much, commenting a little too much.
Toyin Odutola /
Constructive
Crossroads
Dialogue
Followers
Media
Process
Social Media
Too Much
Great Social Media People
Accumulate
Bit
Commenting
Great Process People
Documenting
Feeling
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I've always felt the portrait is an occasion for marks to happen. I've never viewed the portrait as about the sitter. Even when I go to the National Portrait Gallery, I'm not thinking about the sitter; I'm thinking about how the artist chose that color or that highlight. It becomes about the time, place, and context.
Toyin Odutola /
Artist
Color
Thinking
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For a while, I was nervous about portraying women because of the objectification that automatically comes with it, whether the artist intends or not. With "Of Another Kind," I've not so much drawn nudes - I hate saying "nudes" because it's not a spectacle - but portrayed people naked. I see them in a more straightforward way - exposed, but with no indication of who or what they are; they're just there.
Toyin Odutola /
Artist
Hate
People
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Hank Willis Thomas is great. He's the one who "discovered" my work and saw something that I didn't see. He's still constantly pushing me to try out new ideas and not be afraid of what other people will say. He truly is a mentor, and I often ask him about the art world, how to juggle it all and not lose your mind. It would be like accepting an award without thanking him because he really has been so supportive.
Toyin Odutola /
Art
Mind
People
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I started blogging because I didn't know if I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to talk to other people online who were doing art, so I would post work and ask for feedback. I loved that an artist like James Jean would show his process on his blog. It became this open dialogue that, unfortunately, we don't have a lot in the fine-art world. People will say, "Wow, you share a lot." I'm like, "No, I make it a point to." Instagram is a great place for people to share failure. I don't want people to think that being an artist is some glamorous life.
Toyin Odutola /
Art
People
Thinking
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Where some may see flat, static narratives, I see a spectrum of tonal gradations and realities. What I am creating is literally black portraiture with ballpoint pen ink. I'm looking for that in-between state in an individual where the overarching definition is lost. Skin as geography is the terrain I expand by emphasizing the specificity of blackness, where an individual’s subjectivity, various realities and experiences can be drawn onto the diverse topography of the epidermis. From there, the possibilities of portraying a fully-fledged person are endless.
Toyin Odutola /
Black
Creating
Reality
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