Artist Appreciation Month: My Metal Art Inspiration

I first heard about Artist Appreciation Month this year from fellow artist Patience Brewster whose whimsical Christmas Ornaments I love. As part of Artist Appreciation Month activities I was asked to write about artists who inspire me. I have chosen to write about the artist who inspired me to start making metal art. 

It was Christmas over ten years ago and my sister Atsango and I were shopping for Christmas gifts. She, been a lover of art, and I been a recent returnee to Kenya we decided to go by the art gallery at the Kenya National Museum. There I saw the most stunning piece of metal art (see a photograph of it below), I felt an immediate connection to it and so did Atsango. Since I was a broke college student at the time she ended up buying the art piece for herself and one other piece by the same artist for my brother and his wife. 

African Metal Art purchased Kenya National Museum, Artist Unknown 

Unfortunately, since the artwork was not signed, I am yet to learn the name of the talented artist who created this piece, but I remain forever grateful to him/her for re-awakening my creative spirit. Should anyone know the name of this artist please get in touch with me. 

On that day over ten years ago I decided I had to learn this wonderful metal art form. Soon after as I was walking in one of the malls, I checked the notice board and saw a tiny advert for classes in hand embossed metal art. I took down the art teacher’s phone number and called her shortly thereafter. Her name was Taruna and she taught me the ancient Indian art form of embossing aluminum metal. From then on I developed my own style based loosely on the Indian art form. To this day I work primarily with metal.  

Hakuna Matata: Double Meaning Quotes T-Shirts

I am an avid fan of quotes, blame it on my late father who was quite the collector of quote books. So for a while now I have been playing around with the idea of a quote website (I know it's overdone, hopefully I can do it differently). Quotes are a common thread in most of my online writing and I have also created a few art products featuring them. I am now moving onto a different line of quote products and will be opening a new Zazzle store debuting them. However, in the meantime here is a sample of one of my famous quotes t-shirts. It was inspired by my good friends Musonda and Andrew and a cool website they showed me called wordboner.com. My t-shirt features the African quote, "Hakuna Matata," which was made famous by "The Lion King," movie. Hakuna Matata, is a Swahili phrase which means "There are No problems or No Worries." My t-shirt has a double meaning which when read one way says, "Hakuna Matata meaning No Worries," and when read another way says ,"Kuna Matata meaning There are Problems." Enjoy it and look for more double-meaning quote products coming soon.

Hakuna Matata_Famous African Quotes T Shirts Kenya by Injete
Check out more Hakuna matata T-Shirts at Zazzle

Nobel Peace Prize Poem: Human Race Embrace

President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today. I will leave it to others to debate whether or not Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. For me today’s Nobel announcement represented hope and in my Twitter comment I called it a "Nobel Prize of Hope." It represents hope on two levels. A sincere hope that President Barack Obama and other world leaders will pursue the peaceful resolution of conflicts rather than opting for war and a symbolism of what Barack Obama stands for Hope and Change. Barack Obama’s father is a native of my home country, Kenya, the home of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai who inspired me to write a poem on environmentalism. The poem in this blog post is inspired by the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize and the art piece which I created prior to writing the poem. This peace poem, “Human Race Embrace” is about moving beyond divisiveness and racism and embracing each other as part of one human family. While it is a tremendous burden to put on one man’s shoulders may President Barack Obama live up to his name “Barack” which comes from “Baraka” the Swahili word for blessing and may he help bring about the blessing of peace in nations around the world. You can read more about Nobel Peace Prize winners and my take on Obama winning here.

Embrace: Abstract Metal Art by Injete Chesoni
Acrylic Metal Painting (8.25 x 11.75"): SOLD

Email minjete@gmail.com to Buy Artwork

Human Race Embrace
(A Peace Poem by Injete Chesoni)

Two heads are better than one
So the saying goes
United we stand, divided we fall
We have been taught this lesson
Many times over
Embrace me my brother
So that we can stand tall
Let us join together
For as one we can conquer all

Let us join together in love
So that we may soar above
All of the challenges
that this human life brings
Together we can find
Heavenly wings
With which to fly
Beyond the confines
Of limited earth-bound thinking

Let us join together in
One human race embrace
Let us move beyond the color
Of our brother’s face
The limits and confines of race
As a measure of who we choose to embrace
For at the root of it we are all one
A multi-colored family of man
And together “Yes We Can,”
Improve this world for all of its earthly sons
So let us join our hearts and our minds
In one peaceful unified
Brotherly Embrace
for the benefit of all mankind.

This is a peace poem in honor of the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize and the 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate President Barack Obama who ran on a message of hope and change and who represents a part of the multi-colored human family having descended from a black African Kenyan father and a white American mother. May we one day learn to see beyond the divisivness of race and nationality. "Yes we Can"

Environment Poem: Now the Taps Are Dry

Water Drop Image Courtesy of:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Water_drop_001.jpg

Now The Taps Are Dry
(An Environment Poem by Maureen Injete Chesoni)

She told us to plant trees,
and we paid her no heed
And now the taps are dry.
They released
a water rationing schedule today
A water conservation measure
they say,
Because the taps are dry.

We should have rationed our greed
And paid her heed
When she told us not to cut down forest trees
But we did not see the wisdom of her pleas
And now the taps are dry.

We thought that the price of food was high,
Until we had to choose what to buy,
Food or the liquid of life?
Yesterday I had to explain to my daughter,
that the choice was between food and water,
Now that our taps are dry.

Who would have thought
That the day would come,
When we would stand under God’s glorious sun
And buy water by the gallon.
We cannot say that we did not see it coming,
Because she gave us ample warning
That soon the day would be dawning,
When we would wake up one morning
And find that our taps were dry.

So now we are taking conservation measures,
A little too late
We are reclaiming our treasures,
That were squandered and plundered
To suit the whims of a few.
We lacked forethought,
And we should have fought,
Just as she taught,
To protect the liquid of life.
We should have been as far-sighted as she,
Who told us not to cut down trees,
Then perhaps today we would not be crying
Over the fact that our taps are drying.

Design and Buy Your Own Environmental t-shirts and Environment Posters
If you are passionate about environmental conservation or just want to get your message across consider designing your own environmental t-shirts and environment posters at Zazzle.com. If you are not much of an artist you can buy environmental t-shirts and posters designed by others.

Conserve Water t-shirt by holiday_tshirts

The Inspiration For This Poem
This poem was inspired by the current water shortage crisis been experienced in Kenya. There is nothing like personal experience to drive a point home. My taps have literally been running dry for the past two weeks. The "She" alluded to in this poem is the 2004, Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Maathai who is a native of Kenya. She dedicated her life to educating Kenyans on the importance of planting trees and was often persecuted for her efforts to save forests. (Wangari Maathai passed away on September 25th, 2011 from ovarian cancer).