Ghanaian tiktok star and businesswoman, Lopez, is frustrated over the lack of appreciation for visual artists by celebrities in Ghana.
She shared her experiences in a recent interview that, drawing Ghanaian celebrities has not been rewarding.
According to her, many artists fail to show meaningful appreciation despite the effort and cost involved in creating artworks.
“Here in Ghana, they don’t appreciate artists, especially Ghanaian celebrities. You draw them and the only thing they’ll say is thank you, then it ends there. But the tools for making these artworks are very expensive,” she said.
She revealed that the lack of recognition and support eventually forced her to stop drawing celebrities.
“It got to a time I was drawing celebrities and I wasn’t getting the kind of appreciation that I want, so I stopped,” she added.
The TikToker contrasted her experience in Ghana with what she claims happens in Nigeria, citing an example involving singer Tems.
“Ghanaians don’t know how to appreciate artists. When you go to Nigeria, an artist drew Tems and when she saw the artwork, she contacted the artist, transferred 2 million naira, and took the artwork. But here in Ghana, celebrities will never do this,” she claimed.
She further emphasized the level of effort that goes into producing such works, urging celebrities to support creatives financially.
“A lot of energy goes into the drawing. So if you’re a celebrity and a fan has drawn you, they should give you something like 1,000 or 2,000 cedis for transport or something. In Ghana, they don’t even post you, you have to post it yourself and say you drew the person,” she stated.
Recounting a personal experience, she disclosed that she once spent GH₵600 on transport to deliver an artwork to a celebrity, only to receive a simple “thank you” in return without any promotion or acknowledgment.
She also noted that her works received more patronage from Nigerians than Ghanaians during the time she was actively creating celebrity artworks.
