CELEBROGRABY: AFASITE OF THE WEEK

“Truth be told, the faculty of Arts does not feature anything artistic like art exhibitions, fashion exhibitions or any programme where talented and skilled people will showcase their works and products in a way that will convey these art works to a large audience right from our faculty to the general UI community. I think programmes in favour of arts, crafts and creativity of every form should be organized annually to celebrate students and publicize them”— Josh Pens, Afasite of the week

AFAS Press: Can we meet you?

Josh Pens: I am Steve Joshua Oghenekhogie. I am 21 years old. I am a biro artist, poet and a singer. I am in the department of Linguistics and African Languages. And I am in my finals.

AFAS Press: what else do you do apart from schooling?

Josh Pens: I make portrait drawings for people on orders and make conceptual and colourful artworks for interior decorations. I am also a pressman.

AFAS Press: When did you start professionally?

Josh Pens: I started professionally in 2017, but I have always been drawing since I was a kid.

AFAS Press: What are the highlights of what you do?

Josh Pens: Portrait drawings, landscape paintings, nature drawings and sometimes, house paintings.

AFAS Press: why did you not choose something related to architectural designs?

Josh Press: well, I had interest in French language. And that is why I am combining French with Linguistics. I am a double honour student.

AFAS Press: So how do you combine all of these?

Josh Press: Well, I basically have sleepless nights because all aspects of what I do are time consuming and I don’t want to lag behind in any aspect of my skills and talents. So I go the extra mile to achieve all of these.

AFAS Press: Has faculty of Arts or UI generally promoted your artworks in anyway?

Josh Press: No. Not yet.

AFAS Press: What do you think should be done for upcoming talented artists in the future?

Josh Pens: Truth be told, the faculty of Arts does not feature anything artistic like art exhibitions, fashion exhibitions or any programme where talented and skilled people will showcase their works and products in a way that will convey these art works to a large audience right from our faculty to the general UI community. I think programmes in favour of arts, crafts and creativity of every form should be organized annually to celebrate students and publicize them. This way, even lecturers may end up becoming students’ customers. So I think such initiatives should be adopted and implemented.

AFAS Press: Who are your mentors?

Josh Pens: Oscar Ukonu and Vianaarts amongst all other celebrated artists in Nigeria and the world. Their works challenge me to do better everyday.

AFAS Press: Have you mentored anyone in faculty?

Josh Pens: No, not at all. But I dream to do so but unfortunately, a lot of Afasites do not even know me.

AFAS Press: Did you learn the skill professionally or what you do is a display of raw talents?

Josh Pens: I trained myself right from my childhood since the day I discovered it as my talent and the passion has helped me grow massively.

AFAS Press: What would you like to say to AFASites in terms of entrepreneurship and innovations?

Josh Pens: AFAS should create a platform where entrepreneurial activities will be involved and entrepreneurs of different forms will be called for exhibition. This should be done per session or every semester. Aside academics, there is the need to groom and develop skills that will help students, who are seen as future leaders, because academics is not everything. The future starts now!!! Let’s build it!!