A lady outfitted in a costume suited for the finest dandy. A girl carefully crops out her face as she snaps her nude body with her camera phone. A dewy-faced, wet-lipped American Apparel model. These are the images that have inspired Ms. Dawn Okoro.  Vibrant, sensual, and human are the oil on canvas paintings interpreting glossy fashion ads. With her recent move to New York, the part-Nigerian law student turned contemporary fine artist, is swiftly gaining recognition in these mean streets, having recently closed an exhibition at Harlem’s Renaissance Fine Arts Gallery. We previously featured Dawn Okoro’s work on the site, but we decided to catch up with her, in an attempt to gain entry into the mind of the gifted painter.

Afripopmag: When did you decide to pursue the art of painting?

Dawn Okoro: In law school, I painted, and during that time and it helped me pay my rent.  I did commissions and sold original pieces that I made. After that, I knew that life wasn’t for me. I just couldn’t see myself being in a courtroom everyday. So from then on I just had to pursue the art. I went to law school in Houston Texas, and that’s where I met an artist named William Cordova. He introduced me to a lot of different options that I didn’t know about for being an artist so that was really encouraging. I guess that was something I got out of going to law school.

Why did you move to New York?

I moved to pursue art, and I thought it would be a faster pace than Texas and more result-oriented. I thought I could accelerate things by moving out here.

So, why do you paint?

I grew up drawing a lot so I think painting was a natural progression from that. I was able to make the work more expressive through the paint. I love bright, saturated colors. I like to paint because it can be so grand if I want it to be.

What inspires you?

I’m inspired by fashion a lot, by fashion advertising, by popular culture, and human interactions, body language.

What draws you to the female form?

It goes back to being inspired by fashion advertising. Growing up I would flip though fashion magazines and just be so amazed by the clothing and the supermodels. When I was a teenager it was the 90s and that was the supermodel era, and it all seems so glamorous. I met this woman who was a fashion designer. I would see the clothing constructions she was making and the fashion sketches, and she showed me how to do them. I just loved that! I think that lead me draw and paint people, especially the female form.

Do you see yourself stepping away from the female form?

I’m glad you asked that, the next project I’m working on will be a lot different than the other work. It will still be people, but it will be more than one person in the painting. It will be a male figure or a female figure, so I will definitely be stepping out of what I usually do.

Can you describe the process of one of your creations?

I have to think about the feeling or the idea I want to express. I might be inspired by an old fashion advertisement, and then I’ll decide what the look of the model should be, find a girl to pose for me. Sometimes I provide the clothing, and I’ll have a hair and make-up artist, so we just kind of play dress up and play around with poses. I pick the shots that really stand out to me the most and just create the paintings, using the photograph as a reference.

Do you try to deliver a message through your paintings?

I don’t know if there is a particular message in all my painting. For some of the other work there’s probably more of a message. Although growing up looking through fashion magazines, I didn’t see a lot of women with my hair texture, or many black women period in these magazines. So, sometimes I’ll take an image of a pale blonde model, switch it and make it an image of a black model with a big afro or something, so in that case maybe there is a message.

Do you consider yourself an African artist?

I would say yes. I was born here in the US. My dad is Nigerian, but my mom and my dad split when I was really young, and my mom remarried. I didn’t really grow up with much exposure to that side of my culture, but I would consider myself an African artist as well as a black artist, as well as an American artist.

Do you feel pressure to speak on race as a black artist?

At first when I decided I just loved to paint, I didn’t. In more recent years, I started seeing the wonderful work other artists of color were doing.  Pretty much all of it was related to racial issues, so I started thinking like should my painting be about that. Because most of the stuff I was painting was just about fashion and femininity but not really race. So maybe for a couple of years I was driven to do more racially-oriented work. Maybe I will continue to do some work like that in the future. This next project I was telling you about that will involve men and women, but it won’t touch on the subject of race as much as I have in the past. I think I felt pressured before, but now I just feel it less, so maybe it’s just a cycle.

Do you feel it hurts your chances of being mainstream if you just touch too much on race?

I think it’s important to create whatever I want to create. Whatever pours out of me, whether its racially driven or not. Among artist of color so much of what I’ve seen, to create something that’s not racially driven, I feel like it would stick out. I would want to be able to appeal to a very wide audience. I don’t know if by doing work that isn’t very racially driven if that would help me achieve that. But I would say that if I had the passion just to focus on race, I wouldn’t stop doing that just appeal to a wide audience.

On your blog you often comment on the struggle of being an artist, what keeps you going?

Thinking about that next project and trying to make each project better than the one before, and I just love seeing people’s reactions to the work. I think also it’s one of the only things I’m good at (chuckles) so I have no choice. It’s just what I do.

Do you see yourself working in another art form?

In the future I would like to let the photography be the art, instead of just using it as a reference. I want to show some photographs and also do some video work. Again this next project I’m working on, I think there may be some video coming out of that.

You talked about fashion?

That’s definitely something that I would consider. When I took the fashion course at University of Texas in Austin. I was a lot more certain that I wanted to be in fashion design. I kind of abandoned that idea for a while because of lack of capital, and I wasn’t really interested in working under another designer. I ended up focusing my mind on just art. I’m definitely open to the idea of considering actual fashion design in the distant future, because it’s an art as well. I used to love playing around with designs. I kind of stopped, but I will think about going back to it in the future, because it is fun.

How did selling your first piece feel?

The feeling is wonderful! It’s flattering that someone would actually want to pay money to have one of the pieces. It’s just a good feeling to make money doing something you love. I wouldn’t say I just work for just the money, but it’s great to just complete the cycle that way.

Before we go, can you tell us more about this new project?

I can say it’s a bit more edgy than a lot of the work that I currently have, so I’m actually struggling to find models for it (laughs). I don’t have a lot to say about it right now, other than look out for this summer.

Wait there’s more: Get to know: Dawn Okoro // Yinka Shonibare at Smithsonian // Puma + Kehinde Wiley FIFA World Cup collabo