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In his new body of work, The Law of Cohesion, Fortune Ileleji explores how different elements of life, creativity, and organisations come together to form a coherent whole.
In this interview, the artist cum author takes us through his artistic journey, inspiration behind the book and many more. Please enjoy it.
What inspired you to write The Law of Cohesion?
I kept asking why good things fall apart even when they have good parts. I became interested in how different elements interact and whether they strengthen or contradict one another. That question led me to The Law of Cohesion.
What do you notice about people or situations that others might overlook?
I notice relationships between things – what they reinforce, contradict, and ultimately produce. Often, the information is already there; what is missing is the connection between the pieces.
How did watching your father sketch images influence your artistic journey?
Watching him create an image from a blank surface showed me how something internal could take form. I cannot attribute my entire artistic journey to that moment, but its influence has stayed with me.
Was there a particular experience that led you to write The Law of Cohesion?
There was no single event. Over the years, I recorded observations about people, relationships, organisations and society. I eventually recognised a recurring pattern: things grow stronger when their parts reinforce one another and weaker when those parts work against one another.
How would you explain the central idea of The Law of Cohesion to a new reader?
The whole depends not only on its parts but also on how they interact. When the parts reinforce one another, the whole gains strength; when they contradict one another, it weakens.
Has the book changed how you make decisions?
Yes. I now consider not only whether an opportunity is good, but also what it strengthens or weakens. Something can be attractive on its own yet conflict with my broader priorities. This perspective has made it easier to say no.
You studied design in Italy and business in Ireland. How have these different educational experiences shaped your understanding of the relationship between creativity, structure and human behaviour?
Design taught me that freedom and structure are not necessarily enemies. Creative work still has relationships, proportions, constraints and decisions. Business exposed me to the same principle in another form. Organisations are also built on relationships between people, incentives, resources, decisions and objectives. What became interesting to me was that the underlying questions were not completely different. Whether you are composing an image or building an organisation, you ask how different elements can co-exist without losing the integrity of the whole.
How do you decide what to leave out of a painting, and is that process connected to your thinking about cohesion?
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I begin with my own taste and inner world, but as the painting develops, I respond to what is happening on the surface. Each mark changes the relationships around it. I may add something, strengthen it, soften it, alter it or leave it alone. The decision is always about what the painting needs to become more fully itself.
That is where it connects to cohesion. No element exists entirely on its own; each one changes the whole, and the whole changes what each element needs to be.
After reading The Law of Cohesion, what do you hope people will begin to notice about their relationships, work, ambitions or creative decisions that they might previously have taken for granted?
One of the most useful realisations is that a decision can make perfect sense, and still contradict the life you are building.
You can make sensible decisions about your career, relationships, ambitions, money, health and time, yet discover that together they are constructing a life you never consciously chose.
The Law of Cohesion gives you a way to see those relationships and ask whether the different parts of your life are actually strengthening the whole.
If readers could take just one idea from the book and apply it to their lives, what would you want that idea to be?
You can have everything you need and still have it working against itself. Your talent, your effort, your ambitions can each be real, yet pull you toward different lives.
Sometimes the next step is to change the relationship between what you already have. You may not need more. You may need what you already have to stop working against itself.
How accessible and affordable is The Law of Cohesion, and where can your fans get it?
It is available worldwide through major book retailers, in print and digital formats, so readers can choose the format that works best for them.
How would you rate the year 2026?
The ‘Year of the Horse’ has brought energy, clarity and completion. It has been a consequential year. The Law of Cohesion became a finished work that now lives beyond me. I produced some of my strongest paintings, and I am ending the year with a significant art exhibition. I am grateful for 2026.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and growing-up days?
I had a happy, curious childhood. I read a lot, asked endless questions, and often dismantled my toys to understand how they worked. I once cut open our sofa out of curiosity, much to my father’s dismay!
As a teenager, I also drew and painted on walls and wrote poetry. Looking back, those experiences shaped my artistic practice, particularly the interplay between intention and accident, abstraction and representation. The forms have changed, but my curiosity, creativity and desire to understand things have remained the same.
