S5 E2 Jacqueline Suowari | Multidisciplinary artist

In this episode, Nigerian visual artist Jacqueline Suowari shares the philosophy behind her striking ballpoint pen drawings — vast, intricate works composed of thousands of layered strokes. Blending drawing, painting, and design, Jacqueline explores identity, emotional expression, and cultural heritage with fearless honesty.

Her portraits confront societal taboos around grief, depression, and shame, inviting empathy and cross-cultural dialogue. Infused with indigenous Nigerian aesthetics, fabric motifs, and gold leaf, her work becomes a living archive of personal and collective histories.

Guided by emotional clarity and a belief in art’s power to transform, Jacqueline’s practice is as intentional as it is evocative.

Recorded on 25 July 2025. 

Discover more: jacquelinesuowari.com
Follow on Instagram: @jacquelinesuowari

Podcast details:
Podcast email: artiststalespodcast@gmail.com
Website: www.artiststales.net
Instagram: @artists_tales_podcast
Threads: @artists_tales_podcast

Transcript

Welcome to Artist Tales, the podcast that features and celebrates artists from different walks of life. I'm your host Heather Martin, and in this episode I'm speaking with Nigerian artist Jacqueline Suowari, who is a master of the ballpoint pen and mixed media known for her sweeping portraits rendered with thousands of tiny pen strokes.

Jacqueline uses her technique as a metaphor for human experience. Each layer whispering secrets of identity, vulnerability, and strength. Her art confronts cultural taboos, head on from grief and shame to emotional gender norms, and inviting us to consider how we connect, express, and truly see one another shaped by her Nigerian roots and insights.

Jacqueline Blends traditional aesthetics with contemporary storytelling, weaving fabric patterns, gold leaf, and bold symbolism into portraits that feel both timely and radical. Her recent exhibitions, including Adorn and the way they see us shine a spotlight on cultural unity, mental health, and the power of fashion and form is personal expressions.

Welcome, Jacqueline. Could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into creating portraits using a ballpoint pen? Thank you for having me on the podcast here. There. I'm really happy to be here. I started drawing really at a very young age and um, I remember scribbling around my house with, um, colored pens and crayons, and my mom decided that.

You know what enough is, enough is soiling the walls. Let's get you a folder with, um, paper and more interesting colors to use to draw. And I think I was five years old at the time and I, I fell in love with drawing. Just the act of, you know, expressing yourself with lines and all of that. And when I was in secondary school, we used to write in class with a pen, so I would get bored in class and scribble at the back of my books.

I think almost everybody can relate to that experience by the way I scribble at the back of my books. But for me it was really interesting because I loved the, I loved the way the, the drawings almost sort of came alive with the ink from the pen. Then I used to work with a blue pen, and then I went to university with the mindset that I was going to draw.

Like I just wanted to draw, and every time I was asked before I got into the university, what do you want to be when you grow? I would just say, I want to be an artist because. I had asked my, my teacher in the elementary school at the time, what would I be like, what's people that go to the university and they draw, what are they called?

And he said, an artist. So that's what I would just be saying at end time. I was asked, I would say an artist. I had a little confusion in, I think in secondary school, just shortly before university, when I was going to have to choose a course. I thought it was architecture. 'cause architecture is drawing as well, and I'm, I'm sure it was the well-meaning adults in my life convincing me that that was a better option to do.

And um, when I found out that architecture was not drawing human beings and drawing plants and leaves and I left it and I. Went back to being an artist, to saying I wanted to be an artist. Then I got into art school and the first shock I had was, I mean, drawing, you couldn't go to art school to study, drawing in my, in my university.

So drawing was just a course. And then the second root shock I had was that, um, I couldn't draw with my pen in class. So in class they said you have to bring pencils, charcoal, pastels, but definitely not a pen. So that was, um, kind of like a setback because I now had to learn how to draw with other things and, um, other media also, I had to train as a painter, I had to specialize as a painter, so there wasn't any specialization in drawing.

It was after art school. I had an exhibition, a group exhibition where they said it was just a drawing exhibition, and I was very excited to participate. So because of my previous training, four years in art school and all of that, I went to start drawing with the, with pastels and charcoal. Then at the back of my mind, I'm like, let me just try this one piece.

There were five pieces we're supposed to submit, so let me try this one piece with, um, a pen. And that was, it's like it blew my mind. The results blew my mind. I tried it with a black pen this time around and from then on I decided, you know what? I'm going to be a ball points pen artist. Like there was nothing like that at the time.

There were people that were joined to Ball Points Spain. I did my research. I found that some of them, but they weren't doing it like professionally. There were a couple of people out of Nigeria. Internationally who were drawing with, with, with a pen. At the time. There was this Chinese guy, there was, there was Tony, but she wasn't drawing with a pen.

She was drawing with an an ink pen, not a ballpoint pen. So I was like, okay, these people are doing this professionally. I can as well. And I began to explore experiments, ways in which my, my art could be seen as a proper finish to work of art, but then done with pen. So that's how I got into join the ballpoint pen.

So it sounds like quite a journey, and I would say too. I can hear that it was a challenge, or you know, it was kind of a setback because you had to do other forms of art as well, but the courage, you had to kind of say no, you know, after you finished your degree to say, no, I wanna use the ballpoint pen and to really find your voice.

So. It sounds like it took courage to do that, but you've done it. You, you're successful and I've seen your work and it's absolutely stunning, I have to say. Thank you. What are people's interactions or what feedback are you getting when you're kind of exhibiting your, your work? Okay, so the first feedback when people experience my work physically is it's not, pictures don't do justice to your work.

That's the first feedback I get because for people who follow my work and are familiar with my work, they already know that it's done with the four points pen. For people who don't know, the first feedback is, don't tell me all of this is with Pen. How? How are you able to achieve this magnitude of work with a pen?

I think the third feedback I get is, what were you thinking about when you decided to do this? Or were you thinking about when you decided to follow this path? And it's all really very interesting to see the way different people react to my work. Everybody has a fresh question that sends me into new introspection, you know, so it's quite interesting.

And then of course the, I think the she magnitude, like how large my works are. I think that's the, that's the most common thing that people talk about when they experience my work the size. Yeah, so it sounds very positive. And I was going to ask you about the size of the portraits because that was the one thing when I saw an exhibition in London a few months ago, how big they are, the sheer size of them.

So what draws you to the, to the large format? When I started joining Pen, if you remember, I said I did some investigations and I found artists even working with pens. I don't know how, how that happened, but somehow in my head, when I saw the sizes of the works, when I saw the works that they were doing, it was just pictures, mostly pictures on Facebook, and I interpreted them as bigger, as larger pieces.

I interpreted the works as larger pieces, so when I saw them, I saw them as larger pieces and I'm like, oh me, I also want to do large pieces. And large pieces require more work, more patience, more time. But for me, that wasn't a deterrent. It was something I really looked forward to achieving. And I started drawing.

My smaller size at the time was about two feet or so, and then I went to three feet, and then I went to four feet and I went to five feet, six feet, 10 feet. You know, for me it, it wasn't about trying to outdo anybody or anything like that, it was just. This is how I want to express myself. I was really shocked when I began to see people's joins, ballpoint pin joins in real life, and I realized they were really tiny works.

Like some of them were not as, they were not even bigger than a three sizes. You know, and, um, I think it just goes to, you know, when they say follow your heart, follow your passion, follow your dream. Sometimes it doesn't really make sense when you're doing it, but at some point you realize at some point in the journey when you look back, you realize that, oh, all these things actually came together to create or curate your experience.

As, as a, as somebody that's been like a thought leader in that particular field, I now they call me the queen of the ball points pen and it's, it's simply because of the sizes of the work that I do. At the time I was just drawing because, I mean, I was just drawing 'cause that was how I wanted my works to look.

Something about my work is the intricacy. I really enjoy creating the intricates on the skin. And the hair. I really enjoy that and that beauty is lost when I have to shrink all that information into a small piece of paper. So really for me, the bigger I, I go the. The more enjoyable it is for me, although it's, it's more stressful, but I really enjoy, it's like a labor of love.

I really enjoy making really big pieces. So, um, I think for me, I really believe for me, that's why I began to do big works. It wasn't anything, I didn't even think about it. I didn't stop to say, oh, um, normally works are small. I want to go big. I just went big. So that that's what it was. So it sounds like going big, it just felt right, you know that that's how you, yeah.

Yes. Yeah. So that kind of felt right. So it must take quite a long time to develop and create something that large and something that large has such a presence. But the time and effort to go into it personally, I think it's worth it, you know, in terms of the quality of what you do. But I can imagine it takes quite some time to create these pieces.

Yes, it does. When I first started, I used to, I, I started with, like I said, two feet, three feet around that area, and I used to spend more than a month on one, two feet piece. It used to be crazy. Then I began to get better. I began to understand my material better, and I think also with months and months of practice.

Months and years of practice. I begun to do five feet works in about a month, about a month. So I feel like what has happened over time is the more I work, the faster I have gotten. And um, I I, I think the day I decided to explore the eight feet size, I did that. I did my first eight feet in three months. I did my second eight feet in seven weeks.

So, and then the 10 feet is still the one that takes some time because that's, that's quite a large piece. But yes. Um, my, I think on an average, my works take between six weeks to three months to complete. On an average. Wow. But I would say seeing your work, you know, the quality of it is just stunning. And, and what you, what I'm seeing is just stunning.

So it's, I can, I can appreciate the effort, but also you can see the quality of, of the work when you see it. Particularly for, I say in the flesh, but in for real, rather than a, than an image of it. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, I've just, I've found it stunning and amazing looking at your work. Thank you. One thing I, I wanted to ask you about is, I know you know these, the portraits, all ballpoint pen, but you also use mixed media.

So certainly when I was. At the exhibition in London, some months or a few months back, you also incorporate textiles and that sort of thing, which I really enjoyed. So could you talk a bit about sort of how you incorporate other materials in your, in your portraits? So there's the same that no experience is ever wasted, and I'm really grateful that I had to go to art school and I had to go through all the other courses and learn how to use color, how to use material.

I learn how all those materials interact with work and surfaces because I, when I began to experiment my, my drawings and, and ask myself, how can I make this, how can I add more quality? How can I add more character to my work? Those things came back. So in Nigeria we have the culture of wearing what we call commemorative clothing.

Commemorative clothing is where we wear to celebrate festivities, birthdays, weddings, something that we call, uh, should be or uncle. So those, those things are. Clothing that have pictures of the people or the events or whatever is being celebrated, highlighted in usually in circles. And then there's a pattern on the textile fabric.

And, um, if there's anything, I am, I'm proudly Nigerian, and I believe that the best way to tell your stories is, you know, through subliminal ways, especially when you're relating to an international audience. So it's not like you're. You are forcing the story down their truth, but yet you are showing them an experience.

It's almost like your artist, a window into an experience of who the artist might be or is. And um, with my work, I, I use those textiles to sort of just, you know, pay homage back to the cultures that we practice back at home in Nigeria. And with every single work I do, depending on the topic of, depending on what is being addressed.

I would curate the, I and I really love the play on, on textures with my work. So there are times that I would, you know, paint the fabric. There are times I would stick on the fabric. There are times that they would paint the, the item that is being celebrated, the times that we would stick on the item. So it's, um, it's, I really enjoy all of that.

It's almost like putting pieces of a puzzle together. And then usually the, the human being, their hairs, their skin, it's ballpoint pen, but then the outfit that you are wearing is the textile material, and it kind of goes to like the normal human experience of how you always would wear something on yourself.

So like sort of adornment something, it speaks to how our overtime, our style shows our personalities. And in Nigeria we're very stylish people. We love to dress properly, we love to look really good stemming right from pre-colonial times. So those things I think that I want people to know about. Very few people, of course, with social media, with um, the internet.

People know more about Nigeria every day. They're learning new things about Nigeria. I feel like my work is the, you can learn more from my work when you just look at the details of what I'm trying to say. You learn about commemorative clothing, you learn about Asian, Nigerian cultural pieces or histories or hairstyles.

Uh, adornment styles, the clothing we wear, you know, what we do on a day to day. So I, I believe that going to art school helps me to understand how to incorporate those textures into my work. I believe that being in Nigerian and just experiencing Nigeria also has helped me to incorporate, 'cause I'm telling stories every day.

I believe that the best way to be an artist who connects with your audience is through storytelling. And this story are real stories. Some of them are, my experiences of them are experiences of people who I love. So being able to really show them in their essence, you know, it's, it's something that I'm, I'm very happy to be able to do, and the textures and the materials I use help me to achieve That.

Sounds like the themes in your work are around culture, identity, expression, and, and fashion, really to some degree. And also an education piece because you know, I have to say before senior work, I didn't know or had very limited experience of Nigerian culture and Nigerian heritage and clothing and that sort of thing.

And I found it a real, very good experience, a real eyeopener in some ways. So I'm just wondering how have people engaged with your work on that level in terms of what you're trying to get across? So. The first thing about my work is, yes, it's the visual experience at first, but then it draws you in and begins to stimulate your consciousness.

I don't, I want my story to be, yes, the story's unique to me. It's unique to Nigerians, but then I also want it to be something that other people across other races and cultures can relate to. So one of the constant feedbacks I get from my international audience is, oh, I didn't realize we had this similar.

Practice with you. I didn't know that. Oh, Nigerians did this also. I didn't know, oh, in my culture there's this thing we also do to celebrate festivities or there's this kind of material we also wear, or there's this ette. So in as much as with different people, we have similar experiences. And that's something I'm always talking about in my work.

I can be experiencing something in Nigeria and the experience in itself is not alien to the human experience. Somebody somewhere in Russia. Can also be experiencing the same thing. You know? So the fact that we're different people. We are born in different parts of the world, different colors of our skin, it doesn't change or take away from the human experience.

Yes, some similar, some things, some certain things can make it unique to me or unique to my culture. It doesn't mean that on the, on the larger scale of things, the experience is not a general experience. Some experiences are more unique to gender, but it doesn't take away from the fact that it's still a broad experience.

So the fact that I'm a woman in Nigeria doesn't change the fact that you, a woman in London can also be experiencing those. Certain challenges I am experiencing here. So I use my work to almost like a metaphor to say, look at this. It also can be you. You know? So those, those things that are, are one of the things I'm really happy that I've been able to achieve, and especially with my poetry when I do the work.

So the work is not just not just standing on its own. That's usually poetry to assist that work. And the poetry kind of gives you an a deeper insight as to what I was thinking, as to what I was feeling as to what I want you to feel when I was, when you're looking at the work. And that also helps. I think for me, the people who I really am impressed by the appreciation of my work are the people who can connect with the poetry and connects with the work for the most part because of the Instagram.

And most people just scroll and say, oh, they're beautiful. This is beautiful and I appreciate that appreciation. I appreciate that level of appreciation. But for me, the, the more in depth appreciation of my work comes from those who actually connect to the poetry. So they know the storyline, they connect with the work.

I think that for me, that is a beautiful fusion of the experience I'm trying to give them. And it, I forgot about the poetry, so sorry. On my part, I think there was a bit of poetry, you know, when, when I saw the exhibition, so I'm glad you mentioned it. But I would say it does give real depth to your work as well, because it gives that other aspect of, you know, it, it gives people enough to look at it and understand where you're coming from.

Although we all take, I think all of us do take our own stories from it, if you see what I mean. Our own ideas. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Ideas of ideas. Of course, of course. I think that's the most beautiful part. No, it is. And and I do. I agree. And I, I think too, it's really good that, you know, you're right in terms of our experiences, there can be slight differences, but that commonality in human experience and, and the challenges that we face.

When I was doing a bit of research on you, some of the themes that came up that you were exploring were things like grief and shame to emotional gender norms. So could you tell us a bit more about some of the themes that you explore in your work? The first theme I explore, especially when it comes to visual, visual themes are body language.

Perception and perception is a major theme in my work because I believe that. In the past, figuratively, when it comes to paintings or sculptures, the black woman figure has often been misrepresented, especially when it comes to Africa or Nigeria. Um, whenever you see in paintings in history, if you look at paintings from way back, even currently, there are very few rigor representations of the black woman and.

For me, I feel like that's something that needs to be changed. That's something that needs to be addressed because I have never been, I have never had the experience of being a black person until I traveled out of Nigeria. My experience has been, oh, I'm, I'm a person and I'm a person, and this is how we relate.

This is how we experience life. We experience life, and for the most part, Nigerians, like I said earlier. We love to dress up, we love our festivities, and there's a very limited representation of that outside of Nigeria, outside of Africa. So if you just come out of that picture, people don't have that picture in their head.

When they think of a black Nigerian woman, they always black Nigerian person. They have a westernized colonized version of what we are. And there's nobody better to tell your story than you. If you leave your story to be told by someone who doesn't understand the root of your experiences, they'll tell it the best way they deem fit.

And for most people, their first point of contact with a black person is slavery, is how. Is maybe is, um, post-slavery, the way black people used to dress or the Black American ideology of representation when it comes to their culture. And there, there are more aspects of, of culture that's away from that story and that that's representation that is not being presented to the world.

When you think of, if I ask you to think of a black woman in a painting, what comes to your mind? What you see and not the things you see on my paintings and what, what I reflect on. My paintings are my day-to-day experiences, my real life experiences. How we love to do elaborate hairstyles, how we use, so something about black hair.

Black hair is very, very, very multidimensional. We have different ways in which we can express our hairstyles. I find that really fascinating how we can, you know, do this hair, do the hair, do the other hair. And that is also something that other, other races find fascinating about black hair and down the, through the years politics of hair, how black hair has.

They'll tell you your hair is not, is not professional, it's not this, and it's not that it's not presentable. And they're very intricate hairstyles that we do back at home. And you know, I feel like it's just lack of education. People don't understand that this is something that is part of us, how we express ourselves with our hair.

And I always make it a point of duty to make sure that if you see a Jacqueline Ari woman. Jacque. 'cause most of my paintings are women anyway. So if you say Jacqueline to piece, you know that there's elaborate hairstyles, you know that there's regal clothing, you know that there's stylish, regal clothing.

There's, there's a, there's a part of it that shows that, oh, these people have been westernized in clothes, but then there's still holding onto their culture, their cultural essence. You know, so there's no ambigu, there's no ambiguity as to. Who this artist is or what she's trying to represent. I think that that's my own contribution to figurative art, because I feel like that's something that's really lacking.

It's either they're trying to really fully westernize the black figure or they're trying to, and I mean, no, no offense, because some people, that's their risk. That's their, that's their experience of blackness. Especially when you're coming talking about Western, the western world, the black people in the western world have been westernized, so that is their experience of blackness.

So when they're showing. A black woman wearing Western clothes, and I mean, that's, that's fine. We wear Western clothes. I mean, I'm wearing, I'm wearing a shirt right now. But it doesn't take away from the fact that when we're doing our festivities, this is how we appear and I want more of the world to see that this is how we appear and we're not ashamed of that.

I mean when, when, I don't know if you've ever experienced seeing a black woman with thread, like thread that you see on my works, the thread head threaded hairstyles. They almost look like small, small horns, you know? But they're, yeah, I don't think I've seen them. They're delicately woven, you see? So I don't think you've ever seen that in real life, you know?

But you would, you would get to experience that from my painting, and you'll see that that is something that is quite common down here. So it's, I feel like that's my work. That's my job. That's the thing I'm supposed to do with my, that's my contribution with my work. And I think it's really important that you do that.

'cause what you're doing is standing up and challenging people's perceptions of black people, black women, you know how black women are. And I found your work really refreshing that way because yes, I did see the different hairstyles and I didn't know. That that was kind of a thing or that was part of your culture in Nigeria.

And I just found it really fascinating that, you know, it is, and when I saw it, I thought and learned about it. I thought that's just so obvious. You know, like, of course you would do that. You know, so I, I do find, yeah, no, thank you. And keep doing it. I think, yeah, we do need to, we do need to challenge people's perceptions, I think.

Yeah. Yes, yes. So looking forward, where do you think you'll, where do you think your art journey will take you? Where do you think your portrait portraits will evolve to? If you could maybe imagine if you know where they could go? When I started to draw, at first it was just, let me be able to present this figure as real and as authentic as.

I experienced them and as, as time began to go by, as I began to explore my media and my medium, I, I realized that there, there are stories and the messages embedded in my work that I didn't want people to be distracted by. So I began to experiment with taking out certain features. From the figure and just trying to make sure that the essence is still there, but at at every point in time, there's something for you to concentrate on.

There's something for you to look at. So the message is not lost because I noticed that when I would draw a full figure, include the eyes, the nose, the mouth. People tend to be drawn to the faces, which is, which is a beautiful thing. But then. They spend so much time on the face, they don't notice the other intricate details and the work.

And that kind of prompted me to create a body of work called the way they see us with the way they see us. I created a fictional kingdom and in that kingdom, three fictional kingdoms. And in those kingdoms, some people did not have faces, some people did not have mouths, some people did not have eyes, and that body of work.

A very interesting social experiment to see, because once that work was hanging, people had several interpretations as to before reading the text, they had several interpretations as to what the work was about and how the lack of features were. Perceived as disabilities, and I knew that that was going to happen, but I wanted people to understand that what you might think of is that is a disability in someone is actually a superpower because with the stories from the way they see us, those disabilities, they look like disabilities, but they weren't disabilities to the people in those kingdoms, they were actually superpowers.

So for instance, the people that didn't have faces. I called them clairvoyance. And the clairvoyant people could see into your past, they could see your future and they could communicate with you, but they didn't have a face, you know? So that's just an example. And so if you look at a painting of a clairvoyance person, for instance.

I, you said you did some research about me, so you would've seen some paintings that didn't have faith completely. And with, with those paintings, I've been able to achieve more understanding, which is such a, an oxymoron because you expect that when people see something that they can relate to physically, like the faces, the eyes and mouth, then they understand it.

But removing those features has been able to, I've been able to achieve. More understanding of my work because now you're forced to say, okay, what is this artist talking about? Why doesn't this figure have a face? Maybe I can get clues from looking around this work. And then people begin to appreciate other aspects of my work.

Why did she use this material? What does this cultural piece in the commemorative clothing, what's commemorative clothing and how does it relate to Nigeria or the artist? So I think moving forward, my work is going to be more and more abstracted. Yes. I love the figure. Yes, I love to draw human beings. I love to draw form, but I think moving forward there'll be more and more abstraction in my work because I feel like if I'm able to take out I, I, I want to curate the thoughts of the person view my work.

I want to curate that, and I believe that. That experiment with the way they see us was a very successful one. And so moving forward, I would employ more and more of those techniques. So it's almost like some sort of figurative abstraction to guide the viewer towards what I want them to take from my work to make sure that when they look at my work, yes, that's a feel of a every woman, but it's abstracted.

But you can still tell that that's a regal black woman. That's a woman who is fully, who has fully come to herself, who is proud of her expression, her heritage, who's not subservient, who's not in the background. You can tell it's an it's, it's a, the, and if you go into abstraction, but you can tell just looking at that, that this is what this artist is trying to portray.

And, um, I believe that's, I mean, I'm really excited as to what I'm going to do because that is a very vast place for experimentation. I love, like I said earlier, I really love the way the mind works. I love the way people think. I love to study perception. I love to study what influences perception. I like to understand how did you make the decision, what moved you from point A to point B, and how can I move my viewers from point A to point B?

So. Um, using abstraction has been a very interesting word tool. I'm not, I don't think I'll ever completely go abstract, you know, because I really love forms. I really love forms, but I think that I've continue to employ abstraction in my work. That sounds really fascinating. And as you were talking, I was also thinking what we're talking about just before that, around challenging perceptions as well.

'cause you know, if you take away a face or you take away, you know, mouth or something, it does make you question what you're looking at because. Certainly on human beings, the first thing we look at is the face or the eyes. Mm-hmm. You know, so you're kind of taking away something and to the viewer, you then start questioning, you stand, then start exploring kind of the, the piece of work, uh, in front of you a bit more.

So. But thank you. I really have enjoyed speaking with you and I want to thank you for being a guest on, on my podcast. You are welcome. I'm happy that you invited me to speak on your podcast. Thanks for joining me in this rich and reflective conversation with Jacqueline. Her art reminds us that every stroke, every thread of emotion has the power to connect us more deeply to ourselves and one another.

I hope her story left you inspired and curious. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to check out Jacqueline's website and social media handle in the show notes. And if this episode resonated with you, please share it with friends. Leave a review or help spread the word. Your support keeps these stories alive.

In the next episode, I'll be speaking with Kirk Dunn, a Canadian textile artist, actor, and writer whose intricate knitting project explore themes of faith, empathy, and social justice. His work is vibrant, provocative, and deeply human. Won't want to miss it.