Showing posts with label art products. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art products. Show all posts

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Evolution of An Artist: from Shadows of Doubt to Fields of Dreams

Today I am celebrating my evolution as an artist. It is always good to examine one's growth over time. I started my creative journey back in 2004. I was working as a consultant back then and never defined myself as an artist. Throughout my high school and college years I leaned towards Economics and the sciences. I never even took art as a subject in high school even though I enjoyed painting and made some rather amateurish attempts back in my teenage years. Then one day in 2004 I just began drawing again I can't explain why or what moved me (see Shadows of Doubt drawing below). My mother loved the art piece which I stuck up on my bedroom wall and suggested I should pursue art more seriously.

 Shadows of Doubt: Oil Pastel and Pencil Drawing by Injete

In December 2004 my sister Atsango and I were doing Christmas shopping at the museum art gallery and we came across two beautiful metal art pieces, she bought one for herself and one for my brother Solomon and his wife Ina. I fell in love with metal art on that day and I knew I had to learn how to do it. One day while strolling through a shopping centre I saw a sign on the notice board advertising classes in hand-embossed metal art. I excitedly copied down the information and called the artist a Kenyan Asian lady called Taruna. I was her first African student. I discovered that apparently embossed metal art is an ancient tradition in India. From her I learned how to emboss and create images on metal. However, I never did discover what we used to paint the metal because she didn't tell me and she got all her supplies in India. So I spent many years trying to find paint which I could use on the metal (last year after "Googling" I finally discovered it was gold rust liquid).  But in between I made a few fascinating discoveries of my own. So I don't use rust liquid to paint my metal art pieces and I have since developed my own metal art techniques. These are images of the first art piece I sold and of one of the new art forms I developed (handmade metal art cards) which are miniature 4 by 4 inch metal art pieces in a card format.

Two Mothers/Confusion: Metal Oil Painting by Injete


Sax Player: Handmade Metal Art Card by Injete

I also started out with a love for oil pastels so once in a while I use those and much as I love the look of oil paint I simply don't have the patience to use it anymore. Just the other day I discovered another new technique using acrylic paints. As they say "Necessity is the mother of invention," I would like to paraphrase that to, "Necessity is the mother of creation." Last week while working on a painting for my sister Laura which is based on my original "Shadows of Doubt," art piece I realized what a long way I have come as an artist. I have developed a variety of art techniques and people who are familiar with my earlier work have acknowledged my growth and best of all I have actually received commissions and praise from people other than my family members :-). Don't get me wrong, I appreciate my family's support especially because many of my family members have great taste in art but the praise of strangers and their art purchases really do make me think at least I can lay claim to been an artist.

Buy Art Prints by Injete at FineArtAmerica.com


I have also sold some of my art gifts on Zazzle and best of all I have actually sold some of my poetry! Now that I consider an accomplishment because poetry is not easy to sell. So I decided that I really must do a blog post celebrating my evolution as an artist and strangely enough when I checked the date I started this blog it was almost two years ago in June 2009. So hoorah for me and thank-you to all of the people who have supported my creative journey over the years. Here's to what I hope will be many more fruitful, creative years!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

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