An Enduring Passion For Sculpting

Kenya Mon 05-05-2008

An Enduring Passion For Sculpting
By Emmanuel Mwendwa

Chiseling wooden or stone sculptures can be taxing and back-breaking work. But not so for artist Maggie Otieno, who earns her living off making expressive and intriguing sculptural art.

“I also create art pieces molded from recycled materials, metal and mixed media”, she says. Almost a decade since she learnt the ropes, Maggie has overcome myriad odds and is now counted among Kenya’s most sought-after women sculptors.

Maggie Otieno's Sculptures The artist recalls how her resolve momentarily faltered after her parents suggested she enrolls for a public relations diploma course at the University of Nairobi.

“Art was then, not regarded as a serious career choice", she notes. But the training did unwittingly equip her with handy concepts, which prove useful whenever she displays sculptures at exhibitions.

“The skills have been helpful when dealing with potential buyers, some unsure whether to ignore or attach value on art. By design, sculptures are a hard sell – they require space.

Almost everyone has walls to hang paintings. But before investing in a sculptural piece, one has to create room in the office or at home,” she observes.

“Marketing is also tricky, sculptures cannot be carted around. I encourage buyers to visit my home studio or the GoDown Arts Centre where I regularly work”. Perhaps curiously, Maggie started off as a novice painter. She reminisces being fascinated using water colours on paper or oil on canvas.

But an invitation to participate at a workshop organized in 1996 by seasoned artist and colleague Elijah Ongira, culminated in her opting to drop the brush for a chisel.

“This was my first exposure to sculptural art, an uncharted domain wherein chisels and mallets are equally fundamental as are paints and brushes I was already familiar with,” she remarks. “But I was surprised about deep-seated social attitudes, which seemingly pigeon-hole sculpting as not being feminine.

People who found me chiseling stone or wood, thought it was odd for a woman to sculpt at a professional level”, she recounts. A few bold critics ‘advised’ her to quit and channel her energies in painting. “Handling the tools initially posed minor setbacks – sore hands and blisters, which I took into stride”, she says.

And almost overnight, carving stone and wood stumps became exciting, easily complementing her streak for experimentation.

A constant urge to explore depths of fledging creativity drew her, like a moth to light – into incorporating relative mediums like stone, metal and even glass. “Wood, unlike stone is difficult to carve and chip, but metal works well with both media, depending on the projected end object”, she explains.

“The genre is essentially also three-dimensional – paintings are not. My pieces focus on issues and interpret them from different dimensions”.

On average it takes her between two weeks and a month to complete a piece. "I love sculpting. My work simply portrays what I see around, everyday experiences or what I dream about. Ordinary people are ideally very expressive whether in deep thought, talking, gesturing or when doing other activities," she says.

The piece Another Daydream, potrays an old man, seemingly engrossed in thought. She used wood and metal media to create the intriguing Courting Couple, which depicts a woman entwined with her lover.

Elders is a thought-provoking stone carving, symbolic of a typical traditional council of elders ‘discussion session’. “I created this from stones that broke off as I chiseled a different piece but I did not want to throw them away. In such instances I work around what I have”, she remarks.

The titles of her sculptures are simple yet catchy, such as Day Dream, The Kiss, Lone Bird, Half Way, Melody Maker 2, Beautiful Thought, Hmmm, Aaah, Owl, Scholars, Musical Hands and Melody Maker 1 – the latter is feted locally as one of her masterpieces.

It projects a man strumming a soulful melody on a harp or string musical instrument. “My sculptures are essentially abstracts and in extremes semi-abstracts. To appreciate Melody Maker 1, one bends, turns round the piece and views it from various dimensions. I find this interesting," she asserts.

Challenges that she faces range from sourcing raw materials to lack of professional sculpting tools. “The basic drills, for instance, are expensive in Kenya compared to South Africa or Europe”.

She frequents Nairobi’s informal Gikomba Market in search of wood or logs; and also quarries to haggle over prices for blown away, middle-sized boulders. “I regularly also rummage through scrap metal heaps.

I put a lot of time, energy and creativity into my work," she notes. And like many other artists the world over, she often supplements her income by teaching and holding workshops.

“Art remains a luxury for average Kenyan folks and it is still not a necessity. Most local artists don’t sell their work regularly, it is discouraging. But I guess people need to be educated to value and appreciate the role of art in society”, she asserts.

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