Tamaqua high school students learn how art can bridge cultures

When he was a quiet child who struggled to express himself verbally, Ibiyinka Alao listened to a teacher who told him to use art as his voice.

Many years later, the Nigerian-born artist combines art and words — using his work to start a conversation about his upbringing and experiences as an artist.

Alao, who goes by “Ibi,” visited Tamaqua Senior High School Friday to share his artwork and some philosophy. Students in Lori Remmel’s graphic arts class danced, sang, and listened to the artist.

Remmel said that she loves giving her students different kinds of experiences.

“You can use art as a tool to teach any subject, and it’s super important to integrate it in all layers and ways,” Remmel said.

Students said they were happy for a unique experience. Sierra Szabo said she was impressed by the colors, and the way that Alao’s art was interpreted.

“It’ll definitely inspire me to put more of a story into anything I make,” she said.

Alao showed slides of his work — brightly-colored, highly-detailed paintings — and brought a piece that was 10-feet long and took him more than four months to complete. He told the class the colors are inspired by Nigeria’s proximity to the equator, where things are just brighter, he said.

He’s also inspired by his Christian faith. Some pieces portrays stories from the bible in traditional Nigerian styles. All together, it reflects his own culture and upbringing.

He said his work has represented his home country in a competition held by the United Nations.

“Art is a really powerful tool to understand the culture that the artwork is coming from,” Alao said.

Alao said that adversity is what inspires an artist, like his own shyness as a child. He said that an artist is a person with a hole in their heart, and that hole can inspire great work.

He used as an example an oyster’s pearl — a beautiful product that is produced by sand, grit, and irritation.

“Like I said with the story of the oyster — if there’s anything that happens to them that irritates them, that they turn it into pearls,” he said.

Alao gave the students a glimpse of some Nigerian dance and songs, something he also teaches. In March, he will open a show of his paintings at the Walk In Art Center in Schuylkill Haven, and he’s invited students to learn Nigerian choreography for a performance at the opening in March.

For more information about Alao, look up IbiyinkatheArtist on Facebook. “