Story Boards for Thesis

Summary / Abstract

The experiences I went through as a Benin child growing up in Lagos, with typical Nigerian parents (all about education) were memorable. I can basically summarize my life in a few sentences, or some sentences; at first I was in a poor environment and then initially moved to the suburbs. I still felt a connection to the poorer side of my past, though I hardly made a physical connection. Let’s just say I hardly saw my friends in that area anymore. As a child in Lagos in the early 90’s whatever you wanted to do or say never had a chance to exist unless you were seeing through your parents eyes. Basically what this means is that if you say you want to play football (soccer), basketball or be an artist, your parents would think you were insane. Either you want to be a doctor, lawyer, banker, or an engineer. If you couldn’t see what your close minded parents saw then you were ignored. Growing up in Nigeria around this time was crazy. I experienced theft, riots, religious wars, military regime and other chaos. Going to an all boys’ high school I watched fights everyday. It was like a daily routine. To cut the story short after high school I came to Washington DC for college, were I had to stay while my father died and was buried in Nigeria.

Intro

My life experience is pretty interesting. As an art student studying electronic studio, I wish to reveal my life to people through art. So far I have a lot of images in my head of my experiences. What I intend to do is make the viewer see what I saw at that particular time through my eyes. Basically it will be art work through my perspective. Although I have too many images in my head of parts of my life, I intend to be picky about which stories to tell the audience. The little stories have to mean something to me. Example, I was about 11yrs old while my father drove my brother and me to school. He stopped for some gas and as soon as he parked a robber with a gun came from no where and told us to get out of the car. The first thing my dad and I did was look back to warn my brother but he had disappeared. After the thieves drove away my brother came out of the gas station. Obviously he saw the thief coming towards the car before we did but didn’t warn us. I thought it was very funny the way he disappeared. My dad was just happy to find him. Anyway, I still talk about that with my brother today. But that little story can be transformed into an art piece.