The ability to craft worlds so full and immersive is a skill many artists attempt but few ever manage to master. Even fewer are able to do this across platforms, are untethered to a single medium. Even fewer are able to marry their lives and heritage into their art so that is forward facing but still unique to them. When you find one, it is greedy to keep them to yourself.

I first discovered Eugene Odogwu through IndeGENEous, a Soundcloud account dedicated to audio-stories. There is a single story, Flight, three minutes that remind me of the Greek tale of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun. The story is abstract but the emotions are tangible; loss, hope, determination, failure. It has the singular quality of being both background noise and captivating story. The fact that Flight is all there is on Odogwu’s soundcloud account. So I track him, following his digital footprint to his twitter, where I find another part of him.

Engineer by day and multi-media creator and graphic artist, Odogwu doesn’t only write and narrate his enthralling stories, he also is a poet. Like his stories, his poetry is very good but in short supply, both in volume and word count. Micropoetry, they call it.

There is Ruthless. 

▪Ruthless▪
[things.we.spoke.about] #poetry pic.twitter.com/hKm2hpU3on

— Gene (@FourEyedKing) January 11, 2017

And Secret.

▫Secret▫#poetry pic.twitter.com/Lev8xh5K63

— Gene (@FourEyedKing) January 9, 2017

And Scars That Wait

▪Scars that Wait▪
[for my pixie muse] #poetry #words #writing #poem #quote #scars #foureyedking #muse #violet #tent pic.twitter.com/XbmAoGCEaH

— Gene (@FourEyedKing) January 3, 2017

Each as beautiful as the last, each presentation, a sight for sore eyes. There had to be more of this, no? And there was, portraits that conjured the dayglo of now vintage futurist Hollywood films and the acid trips of the 90s. Pictures that would work just as well symbols of the past and visions of the future. Art that builds on worlds of fantasy and science fiction, but here and about us.

[DREAMING OF ELECTRIC FISH] Liyah: Indigo Muse, Afro Punk, Imagineer, Dark Child, Dreamchaser #digitalart #designedbygene #digitalpainting #psychoticolors #art #illustration #digitalart #graphic #design #african #blackart #afro #afroart

A photo posted by artbygene (@art_by_gene) on Dec 17, 2016 at 6:25am PST

World Building [the dreamer] #afroart #afrocentric #blackart #digitalart #digitalpainting #psychoticolors #art #illustration

A photo posted by artbygene (@art_by_gene) on Dec 12, 2016 at 9:14am PST

The First Prophet #FallTownFables #artbygene #art #blackart #afroart #afrocentric #fantasy #cosmic #urbanfantasy #afropunk #afrofantasy #digitalart

A photo posted by artbygene (@art_by_gene) on Nov 5, 2016 at 2:58am PDT

Eugene Odogwu builds world so lucid, so vivid that it enthralls us. Protect such beauty.

Listen to flight here.