Head of graphics section, Fine and Applied Arts Department, Dennis Osadebay University, Delta State, Dr. Anne Chika ThankGod parades a rich profile and is committed to her craft. She is the first female Nigerian PhD holder in Nigerian indigenous clip art in studio graphics. With over two decades as an art practitioner and researcher, she is currently advocating the importance of preserving and globalising Nigerian indigenous cultures through clip art. In this interview with EVELYN OSAGIE, she speaks on her journey, gender barriers and more.
Being a woman
To me being a woman is bringing the complimentary female dimension of humanity to bear in any facet of life. That tender, smart and creative dimension of super solutions! The aspect that the regular kind often forgets to consider.
Joggling my personal/ family life with my career
There are things a woman is built for. She’s a natural multitasker and it hasn’t been any different for me thankfully. I also ascribe this grace to God the source of it all.
My fashion style
My fashion rule is COMFORT! I must feel at home in my clothes then my personality will not be hindered. But on a general note, I love simple, smart and creative fashion. Anything that flatters my personality is game. These can range from sneakers to skirts and smart tops. I think I have very cooperative feet and love footwears a lot. I am not so into headdresses.
Being the first female PhD holder in my field in Nigeria
It settles in me that gender is not a barrier to braving any ordeal and excuses are not for anyone who really wants to make an impact and input. I am happy that the major thing it took from me was time and I had it to give. As a result of the challenge of appropriate personnel for supervision, I suffered delay by patiently waiting till my borrowed supervisor could get a grip of what I was up to in my research. This afforded me more practice and explorative time. I was happy I submitted five different methods of clip art generation with the use of the CorelDraw X4. That intensity of practice afforded by delay came with a priceless value in precision that I couldn’t have gotten any other way. I don’t think it was a mere chance. I am persuaded that I was just blessed to be positioned strategically when the opportunity called.
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Inspiration behind my decision to enter the field
Clip art is a set of illustrative items usually used on graphic ads both digitally and on print. They are vector-based images and are quite interactive. As vectors, they have the advantage of not pixelating unlike ordinary photographs or raster images. They can enlarge endlessly and still retain sharpness and they could be easily reshaped, repositioned, re-coloured or resized without much ado. I was primarily directed towards clip art by Prof. Ojay Ogene. It was one out of the four untouched areas of graphics at the time in the study of graphics in Nigeria. It sounded interesting to me and was also graciously approved by my primary supervisor Prof. Osa Dennis Egonwa on that faithful 24th day of December 2009.
Barriers women face in the fields of graphic design and art in Nigeria
I do not see any insurmountable barriers and for the records, there are more women in graphics practice now than I ever knew. This may not be so obvious because most graphics practice is no longer a physical office affair but digital. I see loads of recruitment going on involving women. I admit, incidentally, that I know more female graphic designers than males. They get their jobs online, execute them online and they are used online. As we flip through pages on our phones, run apps and investigate topics in research, we quickly forget that the designs of those pages we swipe through are the present day graphics and the screen and not paper is the new surface we engage on. I am impressed that the womenfolk are well caught up in the shifting culture of graphics practice, currently.
Challenges I faced as a pioneer in this field
At least, locally no one had done anything on clip art. Even Prof. Ojay Ogene who recommended it could not help me, so the big cross was all mine to carry, and it looked like Golgotha was never going to be in sight, at first. I started an online search. Finding information was one thing and executing it at a period when electronic media was still a fresh addition in the learning process was not a mean feat. This research was a completely digital studio affair. I already had a good degree of digital literacy then but a lot more was required to pull off an independent research on indigenous clip art generation.
My experience in pursuit of a PhD in studio graphics and indigenous clip art
In the applied arts discipline, graphics to be specific, there have always been stereotypes which to me didn’t pose any challenge that made research interesting. The only available MFA programme in Graphics was in Printmaking. The area was saturated and those who dared were frustrated and stuck in there for upwards of six years. I was blessed to have had a brief window of a record two year deviation when advertising was brought in at the graphics MFA program by Dr Omokaro Izebvigie of blessed memory around 1994. When I heard advertising, my ears tingled with an air of adventure. Then I jumped right in. In 2007, in a similar scenario, it was at the Fine and Applied Arts department of the Delta State University Abraka. It was like the sound of music in my ears. A studio PhD in Graphics? A dream of a studio based PhD research study finally unveiled. It was the first of its kind. Though, this might have been propelled by the NUC decree and ultimatum for a mandatory PhD as a standard to remain relevant in academia, but for me it was an adventure door flung open.
We were like guinea pigs as a pioneer set and battled many challenges like shortage of supervisory personnel and infrastructural limitations. Getting a research topic was a herculean task. I loved to work on wildlife photography but I was discouraged because the officer in-charge of me didn’t think it was a feminine and safe thing. After a long collaborative search with the support of Prof. Ojay Ogene I ended up with research on repositioning indigenous cultures by globalizing them via clip art. From the first step, I was glad I did because it was a worthwhile adventure. As I commenced my research, it dawned on me that the area of research as at then was very untouched. Through lots of sleepless nights and hard work, I had to break a number of virgin grounds to deliver the first documented research on indigenous Nigerian clip art. That felt really good.
Ways indigenous clip art can contribute to cultural identity and societal issues
Even the very illiterate persons are now able to use smartphones. Hence without any formal assessment or qualification they are already ushered into the world of digital literacy and are not doing badly at grasping it. In the digital space where the smartphones throw everyone out, we all inevitably speak with the language tools it offers us. Therefore, when indigenous clip art abound for most cultural items, the practice of losing your identity because you are online will be minimized.
If we are provided with our indigenous dialect of the digital language we will not shy away from being ourselves or representing who we are in the digital space. Being patriotic digitally will become an exciting and interesting practice, boosting our efforts at it in other mediums as well.
My advice to young women aspiring to enter the field or any other traditionally male-dominated fields
The world is not looking for a man or a woman right now. It is looking for a solution. The one who has a solution is the champ. As long as you have something remarkable to offer, leave your feminine gender out of the work space. Bring your creative help to the table and you would have fulfilled destiny for which you would be remembered long after you are out of here. Life is no longer coloured in gender paint but in intervention and creative hues.