“Is there an eternity in our hearts?” Ibiyinka Alao said. “There is an infinite outside of us as well as an infinite within us. These two infinites are superimposed on one another and awaken in me the essence of love, art and prayer. An artist is a person with an infinite inside that is equal in size to the infinite outside; hence, an artist is a person without limits. To be limitless sometimes means our heart resonates in the shape of the unknown, and the unknown is an ocean. The compass of this ocean is thought, and nothing is transmissible except thought, the needle of our conscience. This thought needle always points us towards the unknown shadow, that is, towards the light. The eye is the light of the body, and beauty is defined by the heart which goes on forever through the spirit. Hence, there is an infinite in our heart called eternity.”
Ibiyinka Alao currently holds the title of Nigeria’s Ambassador of Art, and his paintings won the first place prize against 61 countries in the United Nations’ International Art Competition. His winning entry, “Girls and a Greener Environment,” showed his depiction of a girl and her journey from youth to adulthood, exploring the lessons and values she gathered along the way. In his works, Alao explores and presents themes of love, life, faith and art. On Wednesday, Alao spoke to Elizabethtown College education majors about using art in the context of teaching with children. Afterwards, Alao spoke to a larger audience about his experiences with Nigerian music and themes of peace within his artistic works.
Born in Nigeria, Alao grew up with a traditional African perspective on life. This helped form his artistic style, which sees life in color and views color as a language of its own. Alao was originally trained as an architect at the Obafemi Awolowo University in lle-lfe, Nigeria. Using themes of love and faith in his paintings, he has garnered worldwide recognition. His paintings are currently being shown in the United States and have been on display in places such as the Harvard Business School, the Indianapolis Art Center, the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center, the Nigerian Consulate, the Nigerian Embassy, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the United Nations Headquarters and the Empire State Building. When he is not travelling with his works, Alao presents lectures and workshops in community centers and colleges across the country.
Earlier in the day, Alao spoke with education majors during a morning session. “This morning, I just talked to them about the concept of art as frozen music,” he said. “We don’t really see art and music as separate from each other. Music is really just the liquid form of the solid art.” He then showed a bit of music with a picture to give a feel for what type of music might be playing in the background of the piece. “Everyone got up and danced and moved to the music, which was surprising to me because, Americans are known as non-dancers,” Alao said.
Alao’s main purpose of the event was to show future educators how music and art can be a helpful aid in the classroom. “How do you use art in a classroom to teach?” he said. “Young children need to feel that they can do anything, but they don’t always have the confidence, so they have to do something they feel they can do. A way to do it is to demonstrate yourself, as a teacher. You bring something in from outside, demonstrate how to make something like that and show it to them. Once they see their teacher doing it, they have all the confidence to make it themselves, and they are able to tell their own stories with art.” Alao said that it is therapeutic and helpful to children to be able to express what their art means to them and to others.
“It is important for you as a teacher to show them that they really can do this, chiefly as a means of communication,” Alao said. One of the things the United Nations has been focused on is creating a world of the future that is more peaceful, tolerant and understanding, no matter what cultures or backgrounds people may come from. “You have to start very young,” he said. “I see it every day how difficult it is to display a concept from a different culture. When we have not grown up in that place, it is usually more difficult to understand another culture. But if you start this idea of tolerance and instill it in children very early, they will grow up to be those kinds of adults who have more embracing views on people.”
To inspire concepts of peace, tolerance and understanding, through teaching in the classroom, art can facilitate communication between students, who can express their own ideas through their unique works. “They share this concept of appreciating other people’s stories that are different from theirs,” Alao said. “Art opens people’s hearts. It is the only thing in the world that we know does that; so, knowing that it is a way to reach the children, they may grow up to know peace.”
