Mother Teresa to me was noble soul. She died in 1997 and left behind a legacy of work, devoting her life to the care of the sick, the poor, and the disadvantaged.

Back when “cancel culture” was yet to be a thing, after making a presence with my art on social media for the first time in 2010, I was heavily slandered by the online art community. I was called a “fake”, a “Nigerian scam artist” and “disgrace to the art community”. Fellow artists in various online art communities thought I was someone who photoshopped pictures, printed them out and called them drawings. Initially it felt like a compliment as people honestly couldn’t believe my drawings were actual drawings. But the criticism got quite personal, racial and hateful. I had only been on social media for 4 months and what felt like an amazing new virtual world where I could openly share my art, quickly became a virtual nightmare. It was after I had drawn my portrait of Mother Teresa in 2011 and showed all the work in progress stages (Stages Of Evolution), that a few of the people who were in disbelief later changed their opinion of my art.

In 2013 my drawing of Mother Teresa became the face of my art. The drawing had been seen in several major publications around the world and was featured on BBC London News and BBC World News. I will always have a special affinity towards Mother Teresa as a result of this. My drawing of Mother Teresa had rescued me from spiralling into the dark side of social media. I learned to never ever take criticism (both negative and positive) personally as it’s simply just an opinion and a matter of perspective.