Moorestown High alumnus Wasiu Ojuolape Jr. considers himself a jack of all trades, a creator who sees the art in everything around him.
“If you sometimes step back, you kind of realize that you’re already doing what you want to do or what your dream is,” the 29-year-old said. “Maybe it’s not at the scale or at the full potential that you feel like you have, but you’re already doing it, so you just have to keep taking those steps forward.”
Ojuolape grew up in Maryland, but would frequently visit his grandparents in Moorestown before he moved there as a middle-school student. The inspiration for his art comes from simply living, he explained, but it began as a young man when he saw his mom’s sketch drawings.
Now his pieces range from clothing to accessories to paintings – all pieces that pop.
“I feel like, nowadays, everything is gravitating more toward the black-and-white and grey scale, the neutral colors,” he observed. “Everyone has a black, white, silver or grey car. A lot of people like to throw on neutral-colored clothes, which is fine. It’s comfy and it’s easy. But I think we’re really losing a lot of color.
“But I love bringing color – I think it’s fun.”
Photos Allison Girardi – Wasiu Ojuolape Jr. grew up in Maryland, but would frequently visit his grandparents in Moorestown before he moved there. The inspiration for his art began as a young man when he saw his mom’s sketch drawings.
An idea, a person or a piece can set the stage for Ojuolape to create, but he doesn’t have a go-to. When he started his journey, that may have been the case, but now he believes in something different.
“I feel like everything is brought to me for a reason, whether it be God or the universe,” Ojuolape acknowledged. “I feel like the things I see and hear or the stuff I consume are for a reason.
“If I’m scrolling through my phone or looking through a newspaper or watching television, I feel like everything is brought to me for a reason. I may or may not be inspired by it.”
Ojuolape has designed more than 200 paintings on canvas, roughly 20 murals and hundreds of clothing designs, cover art and logos. When he sometimes sees something he made, he forgets that his name is on it. But that doesn’t last long, before he remembers, because time flies, he noted, and a lot of things happen.
But he never forgets the experience.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said. “It’s not that I forget the experience, but I forget that it’s out there, if that makes sense. But I don’t forget the actual piece or the experience.”
Four years ago, Ojuolape and fellow Moorestown High alumni and artists Sean Allen and Ryan Casinelli created the Bianca Nikol Roberson Memorial Foundation mural, in honor of a
18-year-old victim of gun violence. Created in a month, it is located on Locust and 52nd streets in West Philadelphia and includes several other gun violence victims.
Ojuolape had seen Allen’s work years before they collaborated on the project, so he knew working with him would be unique.
“It was a very cool experience and that was an extremely large mural, so it was something new and that was very fun,” Ojuolape recalled. “And that’s still over there, so it’s cool that it’s permanently there. It’s what I aim to do.
“I think that’s what every artist aims to do is to leave a piece of themselves,” he added, “like change the world or leave a mark on the world or leave their impression on the world. It’s awesome.
“It’s the end goal.”
Ojuolape attended community college after high school. By then, he was fully invested in making and selling his own artwork. He wasn’t sure if school was right for him at the time, so he took a break before going back.
Art history was a course Ojuolape enjoyed because he learned about the greats.
“I thought that was cool,” he remembered, “because it also allowed me to build my own style, because once you see what’s been done, you can figure out what you want to do. And once you see all the different styles and all the progressions and all these artists – you hear all their stories and their back stories – it allows you to figure out what your path is going to be.”
Ojuolape has been in the cannabis industry for about three or four years and recently became a brand representative for Garden Greens, a family-owned company that combines state agriculture with the cannabis experience. Ojuolape calls it amazing, because he’s used to being a representative for his own brand, Exotick.
“What better job to do?” he remarked. “They really care about the product, so there’s a lot of things they make sure that they don’t do. They’re radiation-free, it’s pesticide-free, they don’t use any unnatural growth hormones, and there’s just so many other factors that play into making sure that the product is top tier and a lot of people are very satisfied with the consistency of it.
“So it’s been a cool brand to work for.”
Ojuolape wants Exotick to be different. Its name – meaning “no attention needed” – is a phrase that suggests true beauty has an intrinsic quality that naturally draws people in without overt displays or demands for recognition, he maintains.
It implies that genuine attractiveness or value is often understated and does not need to be forcefully highlighted or advertised.
“I feel like a lot of things nowadays, whether it be social media or just people in general, I feel like a lot of people are looking for attention, looking to go viral, looking for an easy way out, looking for a quick check or some way to make money…” he observed.
“I just feel like ‘no attention needed’ is just knowing that things are going to come and go. It’s life. It’s not begging to be seen or heard. Just be you. Just enjoy life.”
Ojuolape’s collections don’t just represent a merger between himself and his inspirations, but also combine remembering with finding something new. Some of his clothing pieces feature cartoon or TV characters like Snoopy or Powerpuff Girls with a fresh design, while accessories like hats feature a logo similar to Internet Explorer.
It’s what he loves, Ojuolape says, because it can take you back or bring you forward.
“It’ll take you to the past,” he pointed out, “because you’re going to reminisce and think about all the memories you already have with that similar logo or feel or color, and then it’s going to
bring you back to the future, because now you’re on a hunt to find this new brand or you’re interested or intrigued,” he emphasized.
“I think it’s a very important part of the world,” Ojuolape added, “because I feel like nothing is really new at the end of the day, everything has more or less been done before. Everyone is doing their own tweaks and turns and adding their own stuff to it, but at the end of the day, at the simplicity of everything, everything has more or less been completed.
“We’re just adding our own little remixes to it.”
The more he goes through the journey, Ojuolape believes artists should never stop creating, never stop being themselves and stay true to themselves.
“Find out who you are and who you want to be, and then stay true to that until you die, no matter what happens,” he advised. “People are going to appreciate you for being you. People that hate you are going to hate you for being you, and the people that love you are going to love you for being you, and you’re going to love you for being you.
“You never lose.”
