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“What makes me feel this way?” I was first introduced to the work of Chris Ofili a number of years ago, through a video documentary in which he discussed his influences, painting techniques and styles and the ever popular subject of life as a black artist, and life as a black person living and working in Britain. Chris Ofili was born in Manchester in 1968 of Nigerian parents, but moved to London to pursue his artistic education studying first at the Chelsea School of Art and Design and then moving to the Royal College of Art were he completed his master’s degree in painting. Through much of his work Chris Ofili looks at the stereotypes that are placed on black people living in an urban society, whilst through his other, almost stereotypical influences and interests he becomes part of his work and some might say the subject of his own work. In 1992 his interest and fascination with his African heritage saw him win a scholarship to travel to Zimbabwe where he saw ancient Matopos dot paintings on cave walls and the traditional body scarring of the Nuba tribe. During this eight week visit he also witnessed the remains of colonisation alongside the natural beauty of the land and its wildlife, leaving him with a mix of e