Of one thing I am certain, this is not the first time Kevin Hart got painted by an artist somewhere, and Eli Waduba could simply not have been the first person to tag, “Please Retweet till Kevin Hart sees it.”

But for some reason, on February 27, 2019, Nigerian artist, Eli Yusuf Sarki also known as Eli Waduba, the boy from Kaduna, Nigeria created a hyperrealistic drawing of Kevin Hart. He then proceeded to post a picture of the art on his Twitter page, @EWaduba. The art became viral on Twitter and many people started tagging Kevin Hart to the drawing.

Before anyone could say Jackie O, Kevin Hart asked to be linked with the artist and he promised to purchase the drawing. Hart didn’t stop there, he also commissioned the drawing of three of his celebrity friends and asked Waduba to have a discussion with him via DMs. Waduba’s life has since changed.

The artist has since become a global star, featuring on international platforms like CNN, BBC and ABC News, his stock has now probably dwarfed the roof. He’s also had to put out numerous statements about a possible impostor on Instagram.

Last year, Nigerian creatives on Twitter created the perpetually energized #WeAreNigerianCreatives.

It became the most viral and durable hashtag of 2018 on Nigerian Twitter. It involved sculptors, painters, artists, graphic artists, make-up artists and so forth showcasing their talent on a grand scale. It helped many people foster their career/passion and helped them create an awareness and a market.

Before then, circa 2014, hyperrealism became a trend on Nigerian social media, with so many people creating some spectacular art conceptions that made the average person, not gifted with the artist’s talent to get envious.

Anytime those beautiful works came up, they usually got numerous endorsements and comments in tow; encomiums and commendations.

A little while after that, Nigeria artists, struggling with the very niche art market in Nigerian that might make a career in art fairly risky started drawing celebrities. With it came the now popular caption, ‘I just painted <insert name>, please retweet till (s)he sees it.’ It was both a marketing strategy and an awareness mechanism.

A few times, some artists get lucky, but most times, the celebrities simply ignore.

Just before Waduba’s story became an international headline, those targeted marketing strategies of painting celebrities, though still popular, had reduced over the 3 months preceding that. Nigerians just simply painted whatever they wanted – usually hyper realistic drawings - and put them on social media.

Since Waduba, however, launched, we have again seen a spike in Nigerian artists painting – mostly – international celebrities now.

Probably with a need to tap into the viral conversation of Nigerian art, built by Eli Waduba and Kevin Hart, Nigerian artists who need to make money for their work started churning out hyper realistic art. Thus, woke Nigerians have again kicked up a fuss.

Nigerian activist, Sugabelly, took to her Twitter account on February 27, 2019, and wrote, “Why are people so impressed by Hyper Realism? Because people are more impressed by physically exhausting over subtle mental work. Hyper Realism is the most technically draining yet most basic of the artistic talents. You're just drawing what you see. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

In a way, it was condescending and frankly insensitive. It was also slightly presumptive and inspired an exhaustive reaction from responses, including myself. You simply don’t have to position yourself as an expert on everything, it’s tiring and promotes the tenets of a tedious character.

Nobody’s happiness should cause another person pain. Nobody’s success should beget this much condescension and a premise to seem all-knowing. People are simply trying to eat and make money, it’s not the time for shady critique on what they’re drawing.

If you can draw to transcend the trend, sit down and draw, not to show you’re better, but simply to showcase talent.

People can draw whatever they want. While art has different grades of appreciation, even subordinate art, in the conversation of cadres can still be beautiful. In fact, because something has gotten popular or cliché doesn’t mean it still cannot be beautiful.

In the age of impressionism and neo-impressionism, artists were painting some of the most polarizing artworks. The average human being would not understand why a Basquiat painting is revered.

Yet, they still got appreciation because they were new and fresh and simply beautiful to those who appreciated them. Nobody holds a monopoly on what others call beautiful.

The world should be building people up, not tearing them down. Not everybody is artistically-inclined to know what type of art requires more skill than the other. Art is created to soothe the mind and hopefully make money. If it soothes the mind, it is not a matter of how it was created; it is good and it is appreciated, that is enough.

If you are a true connoisseur of the arts, it should be a question whether the art makes sense. If it does, don’t be a dissident. It’s really not attractive. Post-modernism and internet access is not a license to be insensitive, especially when you claim to stand for egalitarianism.

Asides that, the power of impression is not limited to one particular type of art over another. Trying to say so is simply going on a fool’s errand.

The power of an enfant terrible should simply be canvass necessary opinions.

If the artist wants to paint something, it’s not your place to be an intellectual police. Show-off is equally the bane of sense when there was no need for comments before making them.

Sometimes, it’s just fine to let people enjoy things.