I found this 2001 painting in my garage.

I found this 2001 painting in my garage. At that time, my friend, Moyo Ogundipe was staying with me.

As the curator for African and Oceanic Arts at the Denver Art Museum, I had invited Moyo Ogundipe for a solo exhibition at the museum. He had one year to prepare for the exhibition. And I had a year to do a book about the exhibition, while he painted. The book, Titled African Renaissance: New Forms Old Images in Yoruba Art, was published, I believe in 2003.

As I wrote about Moyo Ogundipe’s work, I also painted to keep him company in the studio.

This is one of the paintings I produced to keep him company. Because the focus was on Ogundipe’s art, I forgot about want I painted. I simply rolled them up and dumped them in my garage. Nineteen years later, I discovered the painting about two weeks ago. And I’m enjoying its company in my studio.

There are lots of figures buried in the body of the work. Even I cannot dig out all these figures.