Modern & Classic

Nairobi is a 'modern and classic' city in the sense that old and new buildings stand side by side.
A visitor can witness this by going for a walk along Kenyatta Avenue and Moi Avenue.
Classic buildings usually have the year of completion written at the entrance or near the roofs.
This date back to the colonial times.
Modern buildings on the other hand have a simple,Cubist style of architecture.
Now,comparing this facts with my work I can refer to Monet as a classic artist and Piet as a modern artist.
Neo-Plasticism can be viewed as a reincarnation of Impressionism.
Monet used brilliant colours (primary colours)in his work while Piet used primary colours with a bit of black & white.
So combining this with African colours I got the following pieces.

Early post/ Market day

If one decides to compare market scenes of the developed countries with those of developing countries,you will notice the huge difference.

African soldiers

In art history, we often hear of the French Zouaves but not the British Kings African Rifles(KAR).
Creativity is entangled with warfare during the WW1 and WW2 periods.
Apart from North Africans,East Africans also participated in the world wars.Most of the KARs were Africans and they were killed in large numbers since they were usually placed at the front line.
The epitaph under this monument is written in English, Arabic and Swahili.The writings on it show how in contempt Africans were looked upon.
By referring to people as "Arms and Legs" is not right.It's a great wonder that no one has ever complained about this issue and yet we have "intellectual" world war historians around.
Notable servicemen included Hussein Onyango Obama (the US Presidents' paternal grandfather) and "General China" who later became a freedom fighter.

The Rooftops

Many people fail to understand the environmental aspect of this photograph.
Yes we can have beautiful trees growing in the city but that doesn't prevent acid rain from destroying the roofs---?

Photo translation-2

With a single photograph one can do many things such as playing with time and colours.

Casual mania

Street fashion is a huge hit in urban areas.There are no age limits or status issues.
Anytime of the day it's all good.Whether outdoors or indoors.

Narrow passage

The original Bohemians maybe had their own way of tackling life issues.
What the early painters/artists went through in their lives is somewhat different from our current generation.
Nowadays, tragedies occur almost on a daily basis.Many of these "creative ones" leave unmentioned.
Few cases (such as the one above), get Press coverage.
It's indeed a harsh reality being a street artist.
Many guys run the risk of being arrested or even imprisonment.Others get caught up in drug problems.
Maybe all this will change one day..........