Moses Jeremiah, Is Hopeful About The Nigerian Creative arts Industry.
Moses Jeremiah hopes that the arts industry in Nigeria and Africa would be so dependable that we can actually make a living out of it and be happy doing what we do.
Moses Jeremiah, a 27-year old West African digital artist born in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. He currently resides in Kaduna, a famed city in the Northern part of the country where he presently exhibits and cultivates his passion for the arts industry.
We shared a life together during the Nigerian Youth Service Corps, two years ago in Benin city. With his love as a young enigmatic artist. His genuine affection for arts is strong and glaring. It is the same energy we share amongst ourselves which has enabled us to communicate various ideas and learn so much together.
Each time we are opportune to discuss we really seem to have this familiar bond. Now, it has led to the creation of this story during a virtual interview earlier this month that had taken weeks to complete. Prior to this day, I sat and made the entire story for your pleasure.
Alot is there to learn from Moses Jeremiah, who has been in the pursuit of artistic excellence. He is a young character developer, creative visual artist who has spent more than six years exploring these passions. He told me, “For the past 6-years, I have been after my passion for art. Focusing more on character design and visualization, where I use my creative ability to produce unique concepts and bring them to life,” He said. “It is about my proficiency in the use of several digital art tools like Photoshop and Procreate, which has been one of my favorite programs for as long as I can remember,” Moses added.
The entire story of Moses Jeremiah came to being from his childhood exposure to cartoons. From Disney, Looney Toons and the popular Superman character. According to him, “I loved them because they were entertaining and just visually beautiful but I really never thought I was going to do this till I saw the super striker comic. To further my conviction, I bought a drawn comic by a Friend at the time for two hundred Naira,” He recounted, and smiled intensely in between and continued. “I still have that book till date, it was all the proof I needed that I could create my own art. To me that’s when I knew I wanted to do this, as in really do this,” He said very passionately. With such great confidence in himself.
At age 15, he started dreading this path. In his words, “15-years was when I started going into it, however, I took it seriously at age 20.” Wondering what he explored before age fifteenth, he shared that he was just like every other kid living a normal life in Kaduna. From going to school and doing all the normal day to day activity and all. “One thing I can say is I had a very supportive family,” He revealed.
For Moses Jeremiah, growing up was fun. He spent so much time watching lots of cartoon programs. While he confessed that his parents were not creatives. So, he spent quality time building his imagination. “I was fond of day dreaming alot and I think that played a part in my choice of career. My friends made it more evident for me when they brought a season of Naruto. Aaahhh! That was the end, I was hooked on this parth,” He confessed, sprinkling feelings of excitement and I felt it like goosebumps all over my entire being. I loved it more.
As the story of Moses grows more fascinating. I discovered that he found more fulfillment walking on this path as a young Nigerian artist. “I find more fulfillment on this path,” He affirmed. And I was left with nothing but every confirmation and belief in his peculiar story.
While the young award winning character developing and digital artist Moses Jeremiah, has been motioning on this path with all faithfulness and truth in himself. He has been able to be a part of various projects, and notable creative arts communities leading the Nigerian creative sector. He also feels a dire need and bears the responsibility of taking the arts industry in Kaduna State to the next level.
He is working courteously and strongly hopes that attention is being focused on that sector. And that creators improve in technical know-how and push their crafts into larger territories. For his own way of assisting the arts industry get better in Kaduna where he is currently based. He shared that he has been able to groom a couple of colleagues. Assist them with building a small community that has been playing a significant role in the sector. Also, these communities have been consistently challenging creators to push beyond the boundaries and enabling them to understand more about the arts space.
According to Moses Jeremiah, “The little I have been doing is that the younger enthusiasts interested in this field often reach out to me from time to time. So I do my best to encourage them and share the little I have. In 2021, I was involved in a skill acquisition program that was organized by a Private enterprise. A hub, there I was invited to speak and educate people on digital illustration and art. And there, I was able to share my skills with them. It was really a good time; an interesting time because at that moment I really felt that I was doing something. I was sharing something, I was impacting someone. Because I saw interest. I saw zeal and that has been the little I could do and have done. Teach, share and just distribute. I plan to go further and as I belong to different communities, I just have to use that medium to share more. We have them already established in Lagos, in Abuja to some extent. I feel it needs to spread more. Nigeria is really large. Because the industry is not that large. We have gone into the gaming industry, we are going into animation and we are breaking into the movie field. Like, it's expanding and the demand for the skill is going to increase and increase over time. So, that's the little I have done; create awareness and share my skills with those I can share,” He concluded satisfyingly.
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Moses Jeremiah, has been able to connect with various prolific artists across Ghana, Benue Republic and Nigeria. While in the near future he looks forward to working with great minds. Create projects with established brands like Netflix, and pioneer projects that would stand out in Nigeria possibly in the animation and gaming sector. “I would really love to work on projects that would be launched on Netflix, Disney, just any amazing project obviously and it doesn't have to be limited to these companies. Because I feel like these companies are the ones people know but there are many amazing companies out there doing really amazing stuffs. So, those are the kind of projects I would love to work on,” He said, feeling very hopeful, excited and grateful.
Furthermore, for artists that have really inspired Moses Jeremiah, he mentioned the likes of American J. Scott Campbell, Aaron Blaise and more. And lastly, five years from now Moses Jeremiah hopes that the arts industry in Nigeria and Africa would be so dependable that we can actually make a living out of it and be happy doing what we do.