Artistically Creating with Masud Olufani

Describe your style of creating your visual art.
I'm a multidisciplinary artist with a formal training in sculpture.  My work is often heavily researched based, with my ideas formulated in response to something I have read.  The work can take a variety of forms and employ a number of different methods, including: painting, sculpture, audio, video, performance and written text.

What makes you so intentional with the messaging that your art features?
I always work with a conscious intentionality about what I am sending into the world. The creation of images is a powerful act imbued with the potential to do great good or great harm.  This duality weighs on me constantly and compels me to thoughtfully consider how my work will live in the world.  For me, this comprises the moral impulse at the heart of my practice.

Tell us about the visual art that you created and wish you didn't sell.
I never really regret selling a work of art. Once the work is complete, I send it into the world to live beyond my purview.

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What artist inspired you the most and why?
There are too many to name. Towering creatives such as Martin Puryear, Leonardo Drew, Elizabeth Catlett, Ursula Von Rydenskard, Allison Saar and Wangechi Mutu are a few examples.

In such a competitive industry, what keeps you motivated? 
It can be competitive but I try not to operate from that space.  I like making stuff--always have.  That's why I keep doing it.  If it wasn't fun as hell, I wouldn't do it--PERIOD.  I also feel a deep calling to move in the world as a creative person.  Accepting that allows me to cultivate the courage and perseverance necessary to do this work.

What role would you love to play and why?
I'm a sucker for great language.  Good writing always inspires me. I would love to do the August Wilson cycle of plays.  His writing is so rich and grounded in the Black American experience. I know his characters.  They leap off the page and come to life in real time as one realizes that August was giving voice to the heroism of everyday Black people.

Where did you give your best vocal performance and share the song and vibe? 
This one is difficult.  I sing often in unconventional settings.  Recently there has been a lot of ZOOM singing as I'm sure you can imagine.  I suppose the one that comes to mind is singing in Chicago at the Baha'i House of worship a few years ago.  The acoustics were sick.  I have a loud, resonant voice anyway so singing in that space just really upped my game to the next level.  It was also without instrumentation, which really centers the quality of the voice. You can't hide behind anything.