Art Living

Logoronyo (Courageous) Design: An Interview with Joseph Logoronyo, an international student of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS pursuing his bachelor’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Why art?

Joseph Logoronyo Abbas is my name. My father gave me the middle name ‘Logoronyo,’ which literally means “courageous.”

I was born on the 6th of July, 1997 in Koboko, a nearby district to Arua. Am born to two lucky South Sudanese parents, my father Mr. Abbas Yusif Ramba, and my mother Beatrice Jokudu Michael.

For as long as I can remember, creativity has always been a core of my existence.

From an early age, I spent most of my free time with other boys in our community, most of the time playing football, kite games, or crafting people from clay. The molding and crafting part was the one I enjoyed the most even as early as five years old. I always enjoyed the thrill of creations being revered and admired by my mates even as young as I was then.

It was the sole activity that often got me into trouble with my mum. This was simply because I never wanted to stop when a got started and would not have minded food if not for her lushes, which I did earn a few in that part of my life. At 24 years, I have realized that my interest and love for creativity and art has remained timeless throughout my school life.

Art is important in our society for several ideal reasons, below are some of the reasons.

• It is a key ingredient in empowering people’s hearts through the relatable emotions it evokes in people.

• It teaches good judgement through celebrating multiple qualitative perspectives that is independent of the school’s rule of wrong and right answer to measure human wholesomeness.

• It highlights the fact that problems can have more than one solution as a question can have more than one answer.

Why now?

As much as art reflects our society, it is important to highlight that the artist’s insights, desires, limitations, and aspirations are embedded in every art piece.

Below are my reasons for actively taking to art now.

• I have a primary desire to spread love to the rest of the world through every brush stroke in my paintings.

• The afro-fusion and cubist style of my paintings help merging Western and African culture which a great gesture of social unity.

• I would appreciate the possibility of making a living from my passion as a business.

• Art greatly provides me with a sense of purpose and fulfillment that balances me up as an engineering student.

What happened so far with your art?

Art is a very important part of my life which has never failed to accompany me all through my journey. I have evolved from basic drawings in 2014 to pencil portraits in 2019, to digital art in 2021 and currently Afro-fusion and Cubist paintings in early 2022.

I am at a point of great skill confidence to sell my art pieces in any Ideal gallery worldwide. As a matter of fact, I have paintings showcasing with one of Malaysia’s major art collectors Art Market Malaysia. Optimism, persistence and consistency are the key weapons in my current art journey.

Where is your art journey taking you?

I strongly believe that art is a universal phenomenon that frees our soul from monotony, transforming everyday life into an exciting and overwhelming journey. With all the required levels of exposure and promotion, I project my art to make it to major national galleries as well as international art spaces soon. The possibility of being featured for book covers, magazines and billboards for the case of my digital art. It is possible as every journey begins with a single step.

On this note, I plan to seize every future opportunity to grow my art, experiences, and possible business to a point of uplifting the disadvantaged in our society.

Follow logoronyodesign on Instagram.