Meet Kinimi, The Self Made Toy Artist
Jun 26, 2003
There is a face whichever way you turn. It may be of a herdsman grazing cattle or a tired woman from the garden with firewood sprouting on her head.
By Elvis Basudde
There is a face whichever way you turn. It may be of a herdsman grazing cattle or a tired woman from the garden with firewood sprouting on her head.
Again, it could be a man carrying heavy luggage on his bicycle, a mother carrying all her three children at a go, Jesus Christ’s crucification or a group of children in a school compound revising.
In a nutshell that is what surrounds Frank Kinimi’s art works on the veranda of his house, which he has turned into a mini workshop in Namasuba, a Kampala suburb.
Indeed, Uganda is endowed with many prospective artists, who just need encouragement from the public to heed to their peculiar art pieces.
Kinimi is one such artist Uganda has produced. He specialises in craft and paintings and his work comprises simple items, not massive ones.
What is interesting about his kind of art is that he is using the simplest material you can imagine. These include newspapers, cassava flour, seeds, wires, colours, pieces of clothes, bark cloth, banana fibres and plastic materials.
Kinimi says the crafts and paints come to him in an uninhabited style. He looks at people and life around his society and translates it into beautiful, spiritual art pieces.
“This one is passing through the stars and the man flying high has just died. Those left behind are crying,†he says as he explains his works.
Kinimi does not concentrate on one theme. His work place is awash with different beautiful themes. But one unique thing with this artist is that he is entirely self-taught. He has never had any formal training in art.
He says he discovered his talent during his school at Kilembe Secondary School, Kasese, where he pursued his secondary education. He later pursued a course in mechanical engineering and got a job as a technician with System Aluminum and Glass Company in Industrial Area, Kampala.
“I worked for a year but felt I could create my own employment. My monthly salary was meagre, so I quit to concentrate on my talent,†he says.
Kinimi now earns a living out of the precedes of his art pieces.
In two days he can craft 10 bicycles each fetching sh6,000, a commuter taxi goes for sh10,000 and a homestead in three days selling it at sh20,000. He says he makes his work on order.
His works are sold at Exposure Africa on Buganda Road, the Crafts Shop at Sheraton, Kampala, the National Theatre and Turifanya Gallery in Kampala.
Ends
There is a face whichever way you turn. It may be of a herdsman grazing cattle or a tired woman from the garden with firewood sprouting on her head.
Again, it could be a man carrying heavy luggage on his bicycle, a mother carrying all her three children at a go, Jesus Christ’s crucification or a group of children in a school compound revising.
In a nutshell that is what surrounds Frank Kinimi’s art works on the veranda of his house, which he has turned into a mini workshop in Namasuba, a Kampala suburb.
Indeed, Uganda is endowed with many prospective artists, who just need encouragement from the public to heed to their peculiar art pieces.
Kinimi is one such artist Uganda has produced. He specialises in craft and paintings and his work comprises simple items, not massive ones.
What is interesting about his kind of art is that he is using the simplest material you can imagine. These include newspapers, cassava flour, seeds, wires, colours, pieces of clothes, bark cloth, banana fibres and plastic materials.
Kinimi says the crafts and paints come to him in an uninhabited style. He looks at people and life around his society and translates it into beautiful, spiritual art pieces.
“This one is passing through the stars and the man flying high has just died. Those left behind are crying,†he says as he explains his works.
Kinimi does not concentrate on one theme. His work place is awash with different beautiful themes. But one unique thing with this artist is that he is entirely self-taught. He has never had any formal training in art.
He says he discovered his talent during his school at Kilembe Secondary School, Kasese, where he pursued his secondary education. He later pursued a course in mechanical engineering and got a job as a technician with System Aluminum and Glass Company in Industrial Area, Kampala.
“I worked for a year but felt I could create my own employment. My monthly salary was meagre, so I quit to concentrate on my talent,†he says.
Kinimi now earns a living out of the precedes of his art pieces.
In two days he can craft 10 bicycles each fetching sh6,000, a commuter taxi goes for sh10,000 and a homestead in three days selling it at sh20,000. He says he makes his work on order.
His works are sold at Exposure Africa on Buganda Road, the Crafts Shop at Sheraton, Kampala, the National Theatre and Turifanya Gallery in Kampala.
Ends