Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Sefa Renee Charles-Ayede is a visual artist specialising in abstract painting, using her work to explore themes such as culture, identity, environmental preservation, faith, and personal growth. Her art is a medium for sparking meaningful conversations that inspire action and hope, encouraging deeper reflection on important societal topics.
Sefa’s creative journey spans over a decade, beginning with photography, writing, and music, before rediscovering her love for painting in 2019. She has since honed her skills with formal training at Nike Art Gallery Abuja and through mentorship from experienced artists.
She debuted as an exhibiting artist at the Carnelian Art Festival in 2022. In 2023, she was a top-three finalist in the “Express Her” art competition. She has since showcased her work at events like the Benue Books and Arts Festival Cottage One Art Pop-Up and #Art4Cancer.
Sefa is also works as a social media marketer and is building @5064neighbourhoods to merge her creative interests.
My biggest inspiration will always be my parents. My father was a journalist and media consultant, while my mother was a stock broker who actually majored in theatre arts for her undergrad. They provided the most enabling environment for me and everyone I grew up with to express ourselves. Sharing my writing and art with them was a fun experience and I’ll always cherish how warm they received my work growing up. They were my first audience and they were supportive of my creative interests. To them, they’d rather see me busy with papers and paint or just paper and a pen than me just watching TV. They shared their music with me and also introduced me to media production unconsciously. This in turn led me to actively pursue my creative interests, leaning on my upbringing as my bank to draw inspiration for writing, photography and now abstract art.
Growing up, I wanted to be a journalist. Although I didn’t fully understand what it entailed but I was interested in the media and I knew I wanted to work in that space. Easily, I’d say my parents influenced that desire but it felt so natural because it was a part of our lives. I am currently pursuing a career as a visual artist and also working as a social media lead. I feel very privileged to build experience in a field that I’ve always been interested in. Honestly, I won’t trade where I am now for anything. The goal is to build more experience and also explore the media and arts space more.