Faith guides local artist

She felt her father was too strict and hard on her. In her native Nigeria, talking back to a parent was not done. The only way Ayodeji knew to express her anger was through art. Her intent was to make him look evil and much older than he was at the time. But most people end up seeing a wise old man. And, actually, the adult Ayodeji does see her father as wise.

“A lot of people have seen it, and they just love the old man,” she said of the painting. “And, for me, I was drawing a wicked old man. But, no, this is an old, aged man with wisdom.”

The piece took on a life of its own as more and more people saw the painting and shared what they saw. Ayodeji reinterpreted the drawing as an abstract created with acrylic paints on a large canvas. She enjoys hearing people’s take on the painting. People insist they see a wise old man. Or, they think it’s a painting of Moses. Some see a lion.

Ayodeji still sees an old man.

The piece, now titled “The Lion of Judah,” currently hangs in the foyer of her Dothan home.

Married to Dr. Akin Ayodeji, a local endocrinologist, and mother of two sons, Andrew and Matthew, Ayodeji shares her work on her website, temifinearts.com. The artist’s work includes original digital art work, alcohol inks on waterproof paper called Yupo, and acrylics on canvas. Along with her abstracts, the artist paints African-inspired settings and people. She even does commissioned animal portraits.

One of her abstract pieces, titled “Scattered Wealth,” is featured in the Heersink Family Health Science Building at Wallace Community College in Dothan. It was among the local art works chosen to be displayed in the building.

The artist grew up in Canada, the United States, and Nigeria. She doesn’t quite recall how she began drawing – it’s just something she remembers always doing.

“I do remember drawing in the Bible, in my Bible on Sunday, because I’m very visual,” Ayodeji said. “So, you know, when you read the Bible stories, I drew what I was told.”

Most of her original works are abstract, and they are her attempt to imagine how she thinks her youngest son, who is autistic, sees the world. Even when she was painting “The Lion of Judah” she was thinking of her son and how she thanks God for him.

“I know he sees the world as so beautiful, and I thank God because that’s the way he’s been raised,” Ayodeji said. “… For me, it’s important that he knows the world is good; the world is beautiful. There are some bad things that happen, but it doesn’t mean it’s something that surrounds him directly.”

Ayodeji’s faith plays a big role in her artistic process. As she works on a piece, she talks to God and feels guided by God as she paints. She even “argues” with God at times over color choices (she rarely uses more than three colors in a single painting). Often she feels God leads people to see what they need to see in her work, whether she sees it or not.

And sometimes, people see what she hoped they would see. When Ayodeji was working on her painting “Precious Stones,” she was thinking about the current COVID-19 pandemic, trying to understand why some die and some do not. She envisioned people as stones in the same body of water, scattered by a disturbance from the surface. As she talked to God, she felt in God’s eyes everyone is unique, but equally precious to him. She sent an iPhone photo of the finished piece to her father in Rhode Island. His response – without her telling him the title or inspiration behind it – was the painting looked like precious stones in water.

“My job is just to do it, and let the world see the message that needs to be seen,” she said. “Let them be ministered, too, by what they see.”