Artist Name
Tona

Artist Statement
I’m Adetona Adedamola A.J known as TONA_ERT; was born 25th November 1994, based in Lagos Nigeria. A graduate of Covenant University in the year 2018, studied Building Technology.
I have loved art from when I was a child, then playing with clay sand to mould cups, pot etc. Also do some sketches of super strikers.

I chose to do art because ART is the only thing that give me the inner peace I need, art gives me the platform to speak out about my emotions even without making any sound.
I see art as a means of communicating to others emotionally.
I make art because it helps me tell stories about my personal life also about families and friends experience in life. Some of my work contains inspiration words that gives hope and assurance for a better future.
My inspiration comes from life experiences.
I draw inspiration from environment, memories, life experiences of family and friends and of my personal self, basically everything that has to do with feelings, emotions, testimonies I try to include deep and strong elements in my work in order to connect more with my viewers.
Sometimes Inspiration comes during church services, whereby something I’ve head hits differently and I just have to sketch it down on my jotter before I loose it.
When I create my art my goal is to pour out my emotions to the world, connecting with my viewers, giving hope to the people who needs it.
Creating Art help me to express myself, opening up my inner self, imagination to the world even without talking, I see art as a means to talk without talking.
Art has helped me to process my emotions and understand my surroundings, it allows me to view life from different perspective. It has also helped me boast my confidence and made me feel more engaged and resilient also on the long run it has helped me work on anxiety, depression and stress.
I love working with mixed medium a lot because it gives me more room to explore. I work with charcoal, pastel, acrylic paints, coffee, spray paints etc.
In my current works I use coffee to create the human hair, it gives me the feel that I’m in control of the outcome of my life, because when we make coffee we love it differently some prefer it so creamy other not so creamy.
Also I make the cloth in different colours, the was inspired by the life of Joseph in the bible with his coat of many colours which represented the fact that he is destined for greatness. I believe everyone are destined for greatness.
You will also find the clouds and a bright sun light which is my symbol of hope, as long as the sun comes up to shine, there is always hope for me to be grate.


New works are filled with emotional portraits with abstract background