We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ross Junior Owusu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ross Junior, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
Over the years, I have being afraid of the criticisms of what I do and knowing the Me that I am but it was through that I have built the character and resilience to stand for myself and what I believe in. Coming from a home where you are thought to mature at a very younger age, that culture and nurturing has laid a strong self dependable man in me that keeps me challenging, believing and pushing myself beyond my comfortable zones and environment.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My work focuses on dialogue and active participation concerning the problems of legitimacy, accessibility, immigrant status, and inclusiveness in my environment. I wonder what I can and cannot control as a floating cultural body traversing between two cultural diasporas, and how much I can and cannot influence things? Using found objects, Ghanaian traditional beads, Bicycle parts, Fabric prints and various clay bodies, I create an adaptable prism through which I investigate my concerns, assimilations, and symbiotic relationships. my current project expounds on the subject of racial segregation and the impacts of racism, one that I am very excited to see how it interacts with spaces and people when it is finished and Installed.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I would say, first, being conscious and focus yet open to ideas and seeing things from different perspectives. My second and last qualities will be being disciplined and this is not just about self but across all areas of our interaction.
The advice I will give to Folks either on similar path or other path will be that, they should make their development for themselves first, be Culturally disciplined and guided to be consistent and successful. The world is a big place to limit your possibilities and creativity.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
My biggest area of Development has being, focusing on and accessing myself as my muse, understanding who I am and what I do. Allowing and building on my fears and insecurities over the past few months have opened another spectrum of interaction that I did not previously comprehend. My graduate studies and practices have created that space for me to have that deep reflection to keep learning and develop myself as it is the central and focal of it all.
Contact Info:
- Website: Hi.rossbyhands.com
- Instagram: @rossbyhands
- Facebook: @Ross Newsoul jnr
Image Credits
All Image credits to Artist
