+1 ::: Why are you an artist Diako?

Because I feel completely free and so happy in my spirit ever since I was a child.

+2 ::: Could you tell us some more about your paintings?

The happiness makes me want to create a deep atmosphere, and as every day is a new nice day, every painting's worked in a quite different way. I can't do one type of work like a series. Even if I try to start doing it the same way as the last painting that I liked the most, my spirit can't concentrate and the liberty has to take over.

+3 ::: Do you think of yourself as an abstract painter, or are the works figurative with stories behind them?

The joy of life is what comes from the brushes, and the texture has to tell the story of it.. if it's abstract or figurative. But sometimes I can put myself in a situation of deep colors in one village in Africa and try to represent the teenage games in the fifties when I was a kid. That's the time the texture of all the pigment becomes figurative. (maybe I can call it abstract figurative).

+4 ::: What artists have influenced you, and how?

It's strange.. I'm influenced by voices (Billie Holiday, African voices, the art deco and every thing of the 1950s). Rock music's very interesting as well as Malian blues. I just try to make the texture sing on the canvas, it can be classical, blues, rhythm and soul. I try to make the texture move with the rhythm that I am listening to while I am working or dancing myself.

+5 ::: What other interests do you have (besides painting)?

The interest of living intensely during my period of life. I can try to bring on a bit of spirit (the thing we miss a little bit today).

+6 ::: What inspires you to paint and how do you keep motivated when things get tough in the studio?

As far as I can think of, I always thought that I could make it, much more since the age of 7 or 8 when I first had a color picture to hang in my room. You know in the fifties, color magazines were very rare in Africa, so I was not expecting that day to meet a color picture. I immediately thought if it was a photograph or a drawing it really amazed me. I was more than fascinated and the color page became a very close friend.
The motivation is in me, it's almost like a mission but sometimes when things get rough I just bring back all the very first work that I did when I had no idea of what I was doing. My old works are like dictionaries when I need some lectures or translations between the past and the future.

+7 ::: How have you handled the business side of being an artist?

It was easy for me because my New York Gallerist put me in a very good position from the start.

+8 ::: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

I hope to be represented in more museums. In the largest institutions and museums. The real contemporary art is not represented as well as modern or other.. anyway things most go on, and people get to know what's happening in that period.

+9 ::: Could you talk about your latest series of paintings and what you are trying to achieve with them?

I would love to do a series according to period but I am not able to follow my ideas, so I never have one painting looking like the other. Lately I've been finishing the paintings that I've started last year. I start many paintings at the same time, then stock them until one by one the texture on the canvas begins to talk to me.
So it depends on the moods, the psychology, the last voyage or the last party with friends.. things like that. I can finish many things at the same time but the texture needs time to match up with me.

+10 ::: What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?

Freedom. Happiness. Smiles. Lots of love. Music. Good books. Silence. The country side. But the dance floor too. I need loud womens voices. Don't hesitate too long. Never hesitate for colors choice. In one word complete liberty. Trust. Courage. Belief in what you do yourself first.