Artist and teacher embraces what life and art offer

In art, there is possibility.

The possibility to dream. The possibility to inspire and sometimes, the possibility to understand.

This is what Dayo Adelaja, 52, learned as a boy growing up in Nigeria. Then, art was a pastime, something he did to occupy his hands and head. It certainly wasn't his idea of a future, not until he was 12 -- when his sister's American boyfriend opened his eyes to the possibilities of art becoming his vocation, as well as the path to a life in the United States.

It is this lesson of possibilities that Adelaja imparts to his young pupils at Booker Elementary School, where he has taught art since moving to Las Vegas in 1994. Though they may not be old enough to understand the significance of it yet, Adelaja teaches them that art can open up so many doors.

"When you are young, you can go anywhere," he says.

A reception honoring Adelaja and Black History Month at the West Las Vegas Arts Center Community Gallery will be at 3 p.m. Saturday. He will discuss his work on exhibit at the gallery and talk about his inspirations, methods and motivations behind his art.

"To me, art is just not something you use to decorate, it's used to teach," Adelaja says. "It can be healing. It can give people self-esteem."

Born in 1958, Adelaja grew up the son of a tax man near the ocean in Lagos, Nigeria. From early on, his father taught him that, though he didn't have to be the best student in his class, he needed to be better than most. As a kid and the youngest of five, he never really dreamed of being an artist, but he knew his father expected hard work from him once he left high school behind.

"You knew you weren't going to sit at home after graduating," Adelaja says.

His oldest sister, Mabel, was the first person to encourage him as an artist. When her future American husband visited Nigeria, Adelaja showed him his drawings.

"He said, 'I know people who study art at university,' " Adelaja says, the soft Nigerian lilt in his voice makes his r's sound like "ah." "That's how I started taking art seriously. I started thinking there was a way of life in it."

Adelaja moved to Oklahoma in 1976, attending the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma before transferring to Texas Southern University in Houston. There, he studied under art professor John Biggers, an artist Adelaja calls his greatest mentor. It was Biggers who encouraged him to become a teacher because the African-American community needed them, Adelaja says.

"He could look at you and make you think," Adelaja recalls about his mentor. "He makes you feel like your work is important."

After obtaining his bachelor's degree in graphic design, Adelaja earned a master's degree from California State University, Los Angeles. During that time, he got married and had two daughters. For years, Adelaja worked as a graphic designer in California, until a friend invited him to a party in Las Vegas in the early 1990s. The affordable housing spurred Adelaja to move his family here to escape the high crime rate and earthquakes of California.

All the while, he painted for himself, propping up giant canvases in his kitchen and covering them in bright yellows, reds, blues, greens. A few years ago, a friend he met through the West Las Vegas Arts Center persuaded him to show his work.

"Immediately you're struck by the color," says Vicki Richardson, Adelaja's friend and owner of Left of Center art gallery, where he rents studio space. "I think he likes the challenge of breaking up or altering space, too."

When she first saw his paintings, she thought some of them were strong enough to exhibit.

Adelaja, a prolific painter with strong Cubist influences, prefers oil as his medium, painting famous jazz and blues figures such as B.B. King, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie "Bird" Parker and others. He has painted several murals in town, most recently a mural on the McDonald's at Martin Luther King Jr. and Lake Mead boulevards. Adelaja also has designed sculptures for placement at Ethel Pearson Park and Doolittle Community Center.

He is an inspiring figure for artists, says his friend of 10 years and fellow artist, Harold Bradford. When Adelaja walks into a room, he immediately becomes the center of attention, laughing and joking about art, music, life.

Anyone who interacts with Adelaja will come away with a strong impression of his appreciation for life, Bradford says.

"He's very nice, very intelligent but he doesn't always flaunt his intelligence," Bradford says of his friend. "He has little subtleties about him that make you sit back and think, 'Hmm.' If you're around him any length of time he's the kind of person you'd immediately want to be friends with."

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@review journal.com or 702-380-4564.