Dodji Koudakpo
Artist
My name is Dodji, thank you so much for landing on my page. I am before anything else an artist for art has always been a big part of my life. Growing up, I often got into trouble painting and drawing on anything I could find. For me it was a passion, a love, and a way to escape my everyday life.
Some wanted to know about my style of painting. To that I said, I am more like explorative type of artist with no fix style or approach to art. I am flexible and I switch styles depending on the subject line or what I am working on at any particular time. Fort instance When painting portrait, I am more traditional oil painter working in layers. When painting landscaping, I am more impromptu with no fix style. I let my subject dictate to me what style I should use as I approach my work with an open mind. Other than that, I am free spirited most of the time with zero expectation while I paint that way I am happy with my results regardeless of the outcome. If the work comes out great, then awesome; if it doesn't that is great too. I am happy regardeless of the outcome. As I told others, I often make mistakes and grow from it. Some of my best works are result of previous mistakes so in a way mistakes aren’t too bad.
Nowadays as an adult I consider myself very fortunate to be able to still carry on that passion of mine and be able to share it with you.
I have worked with acrylic, oil, and charcoal. But I consider oil to be my preferred medium for now. This is because it is the most flexible medium in my opinion to work with, and it doesn’t dry as fast as acrylic does.
I picked up more of academic style of painting while at Syracuse University where I got the opportunity to learn more about art and history of art from various masters, background and perspectives. Those were some wonderful and defining years of my life. I attribute my open mind approach to art that you would notice in my art to those years.
Growing up, I have won quiet a few major recognitions as an artist. Most notably, I was invited to the House of Representative of the State of Texas in Austin Congress as the most promising teenage artist for having produced some outstanding artworks, two years in the row on a televised event. Those were big moral, and confidence boosting moments for me and made me believe that I was doing something good with my art.
I was the winner of the Prestigious "The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards" of 2001 in Austin Texas, I was also nominated by a local chapter to be recipient of the "City of Austin Oustanding Student artist Awards of 2002", I was the winner of "OPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL Youth Appreciation Citation" in fine art,
I was also the winner of "Young Americanos Photography Competition" in photography,
I was also a winner of "NAACP ACT. SO Outstanding Merit Award in Fine Art, 2003" and a few more awards, recognitions and appearances.
I went on to host my first art show at the Community Folk Art of Syracuse New York in 2003.
I hosted my second solo art show with Syracuse University in my senior year at the Community Folder Center. And I participated in countless art shows most notably a recent show at
Sandy Hill Arts Center in 2023, Albany Center Gallery in 2019, and Saratoga Art Gallery in 2023.
I have so much works than I can share with you on this platform right now. I look forward to sharing more of my works here soon. It is truly my joy to share my workswith you. If you see any artwork that you like and must have, please do let me know and maybe we could work something out.
Please let me hear from you, my personal email is ArtbyDodji@gmail.com or you can click the contact icon to send me a message. Thank you.
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