Meet Joseph Wogu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joseph Wogu.

Joseph, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m an artist originally from the small town of York, Pennsylvania and moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 2001. Even though my infatuation with creativity and love for art started at the young age of six, I didn’t always consider myself an artist. For the most part, I considered myself an artistic athlete. As a child, I was mesmerized by how people could paint or draw so real, and I used to love just looking at my older brother’s art class assignments and projects. I taught myself how to draw and I always had a wild imagination, so I saw drawing as an outlet for my imagination to run wild. But as I got older, I became more involved in sports and fell in love with the game of basketball. I continued to draw but I spent most of my time playing basketball and even played some college ball.

During this time, I was still practicing on being able to make my cartoon-like characters come to life and look real while still trying to develop my own recognizable style. It was only about five years ago when I realized that I wasn’t an artistic athlete but I was actually an athletic artist. And ever since then, I’ve been spending all my efforts in perfecting my craft. I enrolled in Full Sail University as a computer animation major taught myself how to do digital drawings in Photoshop, and taught myself how to paint. I’ve sold many pieces and have done a lot of commissioned portraits, but I’m most proud of the children’s book, “My First Tigrinya Words” by Sara Araya-Endirias, that I had the pleasure of illustrating.

Recently I’ve been part of a number of art shows in Atlanta and recently was in the ADP art show this past Memorial Weekend. At the end of the day, my ultimate goal is to have famous people bragging how they have a Wogu Original piece and emcees rapping about how they have a Wogu Original hanging on their wall.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It was never been a smooth road especially when you don’t get the support of your parents. My parents came to the states from Ethiopia to further their education which was a direct result of me being born here and my older brothers being able to come to the US. So, they believed that I should only focus on going to college to be a doctor, lawyer, or engineer. They never really supported me to go follow my God-given talent because they didn’t think that art or basketball was a successful field. And that caused a lot of doubt in my mind to the point I just looked at drawing as a hobby and actually stopped drawing for over a year.

Please tell us more about what you do, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
As an artist, I’m always trying new things and pride myself in being versatile. Most of my artwork is done with pens, pencils, and colored pencils but I also do digital drawings and paintings and started acrylic painting a little over two years ago. I’ve done illustrations and my subject matter always varies. I’ve done many beautiful commissioned portraits and numerous logos for individuals as well as companies and it’s my mainstream of business but candidly speaking they’re not as enjoyable as being able to have my own creative freedom or doing my own creative artwork. I’ve worked very hard on creating my own style and expanding my imagination so when I’m commissioned to do artwork most know they are paying me because of my unique creativity and style not just because I can draw.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Specifically to me and may be true for other artists but being fearless is very important towards my success. I need to keep trying new things and putting myself out there so that my artwork gets noticed and gains value. Art has no limitations and I have to look at myself the same way, as having no limitations. In result knowing that should empower me to be fearless.

Contact Info:

• Email: www.jwogu1122@gmail.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/joephace
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/joephace

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