SALIM
“In the beginning I was just trying to see what my hands could do. It was a way for me to escape the economic hardships of this country (Ghana). ”
I am Togolese and Ghanaian, my father is from Togo and my mother is from Ghana. My father is an interior wall decorator, through his work I became familiar with painting.
When I was 7 years old, I asked my father to enroll me in a painting workshop. I started painting later when I was 13 years old, initially with brushes, now I only paint with a palette knife. I prefer using acrylics over oil, because oil is too hard to work with.
In the beginning I was just trying to see what my hands could do. It was a way for me to escape the economic hardships of this country (Ghana). I paint all times of the day, it doesn’t stop. At times I often find it hard to sleep, I get up and paint.
This style of painting started around 2017, I was inspired by other artists. My favorite artist is actually Picasso because he doesn’t follow any form of rules regarding art.
My paintings tell a story all about self discovery and understanding oneself. Each painting I create is experimental, I don’t have preliminary sketches so I never know how a piece will look until the end. I feel attached to the art when I am about to complete, most of the time I become so attached I don’t want to let them go.