The Tellrhodes Blog

Artefact The painting that changed the world. Any times we here of great speeches by orators and master tacticians that helped end wars. Could art works do the same?  We  find out on this episode of ArteFact. World renowned photographer Nick Ut captured a picture, when America dropped a lethal bomb in Vietnam in 1972. Nick Ut captured the photograph on June 8, 1972, when he was working with Associated Press, an American News Agency. The picture of a Vietnamese girl who was burned all over the body in the napalm bomb attack by America shook the conscience of everyone. If there was one photograph that captured the horrific nature of the Vietnam war, one photograph that tore at our collective conscience, it was the picture of a nine year old girl, running naked down a road, screaming in agony from the jellied gasoline coating her body and burning through skin and muscle down the bone. Her village in the Central Highlands of Vietnam was napalmed that day in 1972, and the...

ARTEFACT Weird Art facts Hello Famz, was surfing through the next recently and came across some very weird act facts. Let's check them out together 1) Learning art correlates strongly with your achievements in math and reading. Have you ever told yourself that you are an Art student just to escape math? Well, the facts tell otherwise: if you are good at art, there is a high probability you are also good at math or other technical sciences. Researchers find that learning art correlates strongly with higher achievement in math and reading. Don't know if God skipped me on this Though because Its kind of strange that I could use calculators to count my fingers!! 2.Picasso could draw before he could walk, and his first word was the Spanish word for pencil. Weird! This is a cool fact about Picasso. Although I think We may have to trust Picasso’s mother on this one. The Spanish for pencil was lápiz. This was Picasso’s first word and he was pronouncing it like “piz, piz”...

Hey fam Welcome to ARTeFACTS ... We have been out for a while...Miss Me? Today we have something very interesting. Many times we have little talented artists whose works get high reach because no ones publizing them. We would be using this platform to get young aspiring artists get their works featured. We will be using this platform to tell you about upcoming events you can get featured in and get people to see your works...  We have two works today... 1. Have you ever thought of what you could do with the beautiful pictures you take with your phone?  Stand a chance to have your phone photography pictures featured in an art exhibition strictly for phone photographers. Just send in 5 phone photography pictures you have taken, your Headshot and send to ArudiStephen@gmail.com. 2. Are you a sculptor, painter, you do bronze work, metal work.  You Stand a chance to get featured on SO&U Yearly calendar.  Just send a mail to Favouronojah55@gmail.com  an...

Art Greats Van Gogh Welcome to Artefacts Van Gogh is now one of the most well-known post-Impressionist painters, although he was not widely appreciated in his lifetime. Vincent Van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Zundert in the southern Netherlands, the son of a pastor. In 1869, he took his first job, working in the Hague branch of an international art dealing firm. He began to write to his younger brother Theo, a correspondence which continued for the rest of Van Gogh's life. Van Gogh's job took him to London and Paris, but he was not interested in the work and was dismissed in 1876. He briefly became a teacher in England, and then, deeply interested in Christianity, a preacher in a mining community in southern Belgium. In 1880, at the age of 27, he decided to become an artist. He moved around, teaching himself to draw and paint and receiving financial support from Theo. In 1886, Van Gogh joined Theo in Paris, and met many artists including Degas, Toulouse-Lautr...

ART LEGENDS: Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa Florence Nwanzuruahu Nkiru Nwapa  (13 January 1931 – 16 October 1993) was a Nigerian author best known as Flora Nwapa. Her novel Efuru (1966) is among the first English-language novels by a woman from Africa. Biography Nwapa, born in Oguta, was the forerunner to a generation of African women writers. While never considering herself a feminist, she is best known for recreating life and traditions from a woman’s viewpoint. In 1966 her book Efuru became Africa’s first internationally published female novel in the English language (Heinemann Educational Books). She has been called the mother of modern African literature. Later she went on to become the first African woman publisher of novels when she founded Tata Press. She also is known for her governmental work in reconstruction after the Biafran War. In particular she worked with orphans and refugees that where displaced during the war. Further she worked as a publisher of Africa...

A LEGEND WOLE SOYINKA Wole Soyinka was born on July 13, 1934, in Nigeria and educated in England. In 1986, the playwright and political activist became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. He dedicated his Nobel acceptance speech to Nelson Mandela. Soyinka has published hundreds of works, including drama, novels, essays and poetry, and colleges all over the world seek him out as a visiting professor. Early Life Wole Soyinka was born Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Babatunde Soyinka on July 13, 1934, in Abeokuta, near Ibadan in western Nigeria. His father, Samuel Ayodele Soyinka, was a prominent Anglican minister and headmaster. His mother, Grace Eniola Soyinka, who was called "Wild Christian," was a shopkeeper and local activist. As a child, he lived in an Anglican mission compound, learning the Christian teachings of his parents, as well as the Yoruba spiritualism and tribal customs of his grandfather. A precocious and inquisitive child, W...

POEM OF THE WEEK I have a dream that all tribes in Nigeria shall sit together and dine at the warm table of brotherhood. That the centripetal forces that divide us would melt away with fervent heat of love. That we will speak with one voice, act on one goal and live with one purpose I have a dream that the Epileptic power supply will be a thing of the past Gone are those days when school children had to chorus our shame in the shout of ''UP NEPA'' as if electricity was a privilege. That there would be uninterrupted power supply. I have a dream that one day, the youth would have a job to call their own That they will be given the opportunity to work with their own hands and earn a living That they wont have to sell their kidney all because of money That Mr. Satan will not be the best job provider I have a dream of a Nigeria with great leaders who will not flinch at the stage of sacrifice nor surrender at the feet of failure or frustration Who wil...

POEM OF THE WEEK I have a dream that all tribes in Nigeria shall sit together and dine at the warm table of brotherhood. That the centripetal forces that divide us would melt away with fervent heat of love. That we will speak with one voice, act on one goal and live with one purpose I have a dream that the Epileptic power supply will be a thing of the past Gone are those days when school children had to chorus our shame in the shout of ''UP NEPA'' as if electricity was a privilege. That there would be uninterrupted power supply. I have a dream that one day, the youth would have a job to call their own That they will be given the opportunity to work with their own hands and earn a living That they wont have to sell their kidney all because of money That Mr. Satan will not be the best job provider I have a dream of a Nigeria with great leaders who will not flinch at the stage of sacrifice nor surrender at the feet of failure or frustration Who will n...

Welcome to another episode of ARTEFACTS.  As it's our culture to bring to you educate our minds and create a burning hunger for Art in the minds of the youths. Today we shall be looking at five ways we can improve our spokenwords skills . 1. Choose a subject and have attitude.  No attitude, no poem! Feelings and opinions give poetry its “richness.” Each poet has a unique perspective and view of the world that no one else has. It is important that a spoken word poem embodies the courage necessary to share one’s self with the rest of the world. The key here is to build confidence. We must acknowledge ourselves as writers and understand what we have to say is important. Practice. Practice. Practice. 2. Pick your poetic devices. Poems that get attention are ones that incorporate simple, but powerful poetic elements. Repetition is a device that can help a writer generate exciting poems with just repeating a key phrase or image. Rhyming can enrich your diction and performance...

Oresegun Olumide. A rare gem the world is yet to discover His oil on canvas paintings, which he has been creating for years, have finally brought the artist to the lime light. Oresegun set Facebook ablaze after he uploaded his most recent pieces of art . Oresegun’s paintings go beyond paint and pencils, and could even stand a chance when placed side by side with Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. A painted piece of artwork which, according to Wikipedia has been acclaimed as, “the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.” Some Nigerians still can’t believe that this painting was done by hand. Oresegun is a 2006 graduate of the Yaba College of Technology. He graduated from the department of Fine Arts with a Distinction in painting. One unique feature of some of his paintings is the very realistic water around or on his characters. This is indeed a rare debut for the young artist. Oresegun’s artwork co...

ARTIST OF THE WEEK:TY BELLO TY Bello was born in Ogun state. She had her university education at the University of Lagos where she obtained a degree in Economics. TY Bello practiced as a journalist for a while before venturing into photography. She came into the spotlight with her music group, KUSH,  which had Lara George and Emem Ema as members. Together they had a very successful group and one can't forget their hit song "Lets live together." One can't talk about TY Bello and not remember her unique fashion style which includes her glowing Afro hairstyle and hard-to-miss eyebrows. After leaving KUSH and dropping her debut album, TY Bello focused on photography. Her photography career is one which has taken her places. She is a master in the craft and we bet everyone knows that. Remember when TY Bello was working in Lagos where she was creating a photo shoot for the British rapper Tinie Tempah. She later discovered the remarkable looking woman,Olajumok...

Fun facts about Shakespeare 1. In the few signatures that have survived, Shakespeare spelled his name “Willm Shaksp,” “William Shakespe,” “Wm Shakspe,” “William Shakspere,” ”Willm Shakspere,” and “William Shakspeare”--but never “William Shakespeare 2. Because Anne Hathaway Shakespeare's tombstone states she was 67 when she died in 1623, it is generally believed that she was eight years older than her husband. However, the figures 1 and 7 are easily confused--so she might have been 61, only two years older than William Shakespeare 3. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Shakespeare wrote about one-tenth of the most quotable quotations ever written or spoken in English. 4. The Globe burned to the ground on June 29, 1613, set fire by a cannon shot during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII 5. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616. In his will, he left most of his real estate to his daughter Susanna. A statement was inserted between the lines in the wil...

Welcome to ARTeFACT  this week we will be looking at  the  most fascinating art works of all time. 1 | MONA LISA WHERE TO SEE IT: THE LOUVRE MUSEUM, PARIS It's the masterpiece of all masterpieces, the most famous, most discussed and most enigmatic of all paintings. It's the portrait of a woman, said to be named Lisa Gherardini, painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503 and 1506. It's been on permanent display in Paris since 1797, except for a period of two years when it was stolen in 1911 before returning to the Louvre Museum in 1913. The depicted smile has continuously captured the world's imagination ever since. 2 | THE LAST SUPPER The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci WHERE TO SEE IT: SANTA MARIA DELLE GRAZIE CONVENT, MILAN Da Vinci's other masterpiece depicts one of the Bible's most famous scenes. Unlike most other great works of art, it is not in a museum, but covering a wall of a convent in Milan with limited access to visitors. Painted between 1...

Hey welcome to ARTeFACT!!  Here, we X-ray mind-blowing artworks and artists both upcoming and world class. This week we shall be looking at facts about famous art works you didn't know or probably did know but didn't have total information about.  The Last Supper- Leonardo Da Vinci. One of Da Vinci’s most famous work which can be seen in the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, Italy—originally included Jesus’ feet!  But in 1652, while installing a doorway in the refectory where the painting is on view, builders cut into the centre from the bottom of the mural, lopping off Jesus’ feet. Another one of Da Vinci's famous painting popularly known as MONA LISA also has its own interesting story,  now this got me laughing. When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, the empty space it left on the wall attracted more visitors than the painting had. I guess we know not what is good untill we have lost it. Leonardo da Vinci spent 12 years paint...