Undergrxnd Interview with Divine Ezeh

Undergrxnd Interview

For the theme, Metamorphosis, we asked Divine Ezeh five quick questions about his journey and experiences. Also referred to as Pabu, Divine is a digital artist and graphic illustrator, who sees art as the most integral part of him. For this conversation, he answers the questions on his journey as an artist and the submissions he has made to the magazine.

Undergrxnd: What was it like, pursuing art full-time and not as some hobby?

Divine: It was very fun. The idea of getting better everyday was the biggest motivation as the ultimate rule really, was to get better. From my days as an artist drawing on paper and longing to get my drawings coloured digitally, even though at the time, I hadn’t the skill and tools to do so. My brother was really helpful, he was an artist himself. When I say it was fun, I mean it in the sense that I was just having fun with it: creating music covers for artists and a bunch of other random illustrations—if you are patient enough, you’ll see it on my instagram account. It was mostly just about having fun and working on my personal projects; things that spoke to me. Random works that probably send a message. The comparison was there and it was sad. Comparing yourself to artists that are up there can make you really sad. But that was the thing for me, watching the craft get better; the transition from one point to the other, regardless of the fact that it could make me sad, all that comparison. That’s basically the summary of this journey, having fun with it and getting better at what I do for myself as a full-time artist.

Undergrxnd: Biggest challenge starting off as a creative in this space?

Divine: It would definitely be time first before any other thing. I studied architecture in school and it was a very time consuming course, so I hadn’t all the time I needed. But now, I have more of the said time on my hand, to do all I want to as well as I would like and for what I want to do with it. Another challenge I had was lack of appropriate resources to put the ideas I wanted to work on into place. It’s different now; I’m not there yet, but it’s a far stretch from what it used to be. So I would say it was time and lack of adequate resources. Those were my biggest challenges.