By Mathew K Jallow
Being a painter requires a special kind of intellect and skill. And Yero-Ouma Baldeh has it. Peering into the dark abyss and seeing images dance, jump, perform somatic contortions, and dissolve into thin air, is the purview of deep thinking that stretches the mind to the edge of the universe. The limits of imagination. For Yero-Ouma, that mental exercise began as early as primary school. Scribbling what the mind could imagine, but not understand, that thing that gave joy and fulfillment, was the highlight of young Yero-Ouma’s day. In high school, he was never alone in his creative struggles. His Indian art teacher, Mrs Ram Gopal was there to nudge him one more step up the steep slope of his artistic endeavor. That was his empowerment. At night, Yero-Ouma could hear the echoes of Mrs Gopal’s voice long after he went to bed, and only the muffled voices of the village elders broke the stillness of the African night; ‘don’t be afraid to use color. It’s your best tool.’ And Yero-Ouma latched onto every Mrs Gopal word, as if it had biblical magic, and in many ways, it did, to young Yero, for such was his reverence for Mrs Gopal, his art teacher’s instructions. Early in his young age, Yero-Ouma’s mind opened up to a whole new world of the abstract; space, texture, line, shape, color, form, perspective, and value, and found home in his fertile imagination. And from three American Peace Corps volunteers he acquired the technical skills that will carry him into this brave new world of ideas and concepts. Like Auguste Renior, da Vinci, Dali, and Van Gogh, the art of imagination, in all its abstract forms, once mastered, came easy to Yero-Ouma, who finds oils bold and vibrant. But Yero-Ouma is first to admit that when he can’t find the exact colors to unfurl his creativity; to mold, fashion, shape, model and bring to life complex artist ideas, he grinds hard pastel and adds oils to it. ‘It works,’ he says. It’s easy to see how Yero draws inspiration from his Fulani roots; African village life, surrounded by African wildlife. It is only fair to divulge, with great degree of certainty, that Yero-Ouma’s artwork flows from his Fulani culture, often in very obvious, but for the most part, in imperceptible ways. And this accounts for a significant part of the color in his artistic work.
One cannot harp on Yero-Ouma’s artistic blossoming without mentioning his mentor, tutor, critic and guide, Mrs Trudie Crites of Long Island, who taught him how to focus on images, visibly or mentally, in order to bring them to life on canvas. Nature is complex and Yero-Ouma’s depictions capture that essence in all its intricacies. I only have faint ideas what made the great painters of the past standout the way they did, but if Picasso were to come back to life today, he’ll recognize that the artistic flair Yero-Ouma exhibits, will put him on the track as one of the young masters of the canvas of our time. If there is one thing that sticks out in Yero-Ouma’s art work, its how it transcends the artificial barriers of tribe and race, to exemplify the commonality that shatters the myth, which differentiates the human family. Yero-Ouma’s colors are captivating, but its the totality of the exquisite colors that he uses in his soft depictions that scream loud on canvas, and wash celestial calmness and rapturous enchantment over art observers. I imagine Yero-Ouma’s masterful artwork adorn the walls and hallways of great institutions, to bring new vibes expressed in the human emotions of inner peace and divine redemption. Lovers of art have an attachment that borders on the worship of an ecclesiastical power, for such is the ability of the canvas to transport the human mind to that place of calm and beauty that resides in us. Yero Ouma’s art expression has range; soft, fiery, mysterious, gentle, awe-striking, captivating, eye-catching, ornate, and just simply beautiful. There is hardly any Yero-Ouma work that stands out more than the other, but the noticeable predominance of Fulani cultural portrayals in Yero-Ouma’s artwork is noticeable. And his recent cattle-themed collection brings Yero-Ouma back full cycle to his early childhood; things he saw, what people did, how they lived, where they lived, how they dressed, the work they did, the music they played, a baby cow and giraffe, a lone hunter, the serenity of the African skies, and the African women, mysteriously elegant in their charcoal blackness. I will recommend this collection for the office, home, walls of hallways of institutions, and places of work. For Yero-Ouma’s artwork is that good.
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