While her art school peers focused on realistic skin tones, Ghanaian artist Ama Sackey found her signature in blue. For Sackey, blue isn’t merely comforting; it embodies freedom. Embracing this hue allowed her to defy traditional art school norms, transforming what she initially perceived as a constraint into a wellspring of liberation.
Working primarily with acrylic on canvas, Sackey’s art offers a unique perspective on realism. Through her work, she challenges the stigma around mental health and investigates the experiences of individuals within their immediate environs and the wider socio-political events that shape their lives. Paradoxically, her profound engagement with blue ultimately honed her ability to paint natural skin tones.
Through an interesting creative process, the artist draws inspiration from the sea, land, and her immediate surroundings, blending multiple ideas. She expands on her research and casual conversations during travels, capturing moments and interpreting her subjects’ stories through her art. This process can sometimes be confusing as she navigates the best way to communicate the narratives she aims to tell.
Acknowledging the sensitivity of mental health discussions, she uses her work to depict her reality. Some of her subjects are fortunate enough to attend her shows, often captivated by the duality within the figures, especially her deep exploration of brown and blue. For Sackey, brown powerfully symbolizes the earth and cultural identity. Unfortunately, many of her subjects, often from distant places she’s visited, cannot see the finished works or attend exhibitions.
From her perspective, mental health isn’t discussed or prioritized enough, especially in Ghana and other regions. It’s often viewed as a taboo or overly sensitive subject, burdened by significant stigma, and many don’t fully grasp the concept or its associated issues.
However, given its profound impact on individuals and lives, mental health must be addressed properly and effectively. People need to feel comfortable discussing their struggles openly, and the topic requires far more attention and dedicated platforms.
In Naked Truth, 2025, the fish on the plate could represent our destructive tendencies, or something that sustains us when we are vulnerable. It could stand for so many things depending on who is experiencing the work.
Only by identifying the root of a problem can we truly begin to address it for ourselves. This self-awareness, though challenging, is entirely possible. By accepting that everything, even chaos, serves a purpose. Sackey firmly believes that humans are not defined by their trauma, but rather by how they choose to live with it. Driven by this conviction, she creates art that speaks to one’s inner child, encouraging self-reflection and healing.
Trauma is often inherited. The way someone expresses love to us can become the only way we know how to show it to others – it’s like the only language we’ve learned. This is because we mimic the love we experienced or were taught.
Most people develop trauma in childhood, and this requires a far more aggressive confrontation than it currently receives. Every trait we develop stems from these early experiences. Without self-reflection, we carry these traits throughout our lives and into relationships, which can sometimes lead to loss, an inferiority complex, and even ingrained anger. My portrait, “The Angry Child,” with its very serious figure, was directly inspired by what I was personally experiencing at that time.
About
Nana Ama Sackey is an emerging contemporary artist from Takoradi, Ghana. Born in 1998, she attended Archbishop Porter Girls Senior High School, pursued Visual arts, and graduated in 2017. Subsequently, Ama Sackey enrolled at Takoradi Technical University and studied Painting, equipped with the knowledge and expertise required to pursue her passion for art.
For more information: https://amasackey.com/
