Drawing to drown sad post-poll memories

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By Harold Ayodo

He does with his painting brush what others have been trying to achieve through peace meetings.

Hillary Ogomo, an art painter, has taken to trying out his talent as a unique bridge from war to peace.

With his brushes and colours, he is changing the faces of homes destroyed during post-election skirmishes in Kisumu and giving them a front to remind their owners of peace.

Ogomo refers to his art as ‘relief sculpture’. He draws cemented artwork on outer walls of homes, which had previously been destroyed, to give them a facelift that replaces the ugly past with beautiful paintings.

Artistic experts define the work as sculptured panting where a modeled form is raised or sunken from a plain surface.

The raised surface is then pasted with any preferred hue to enhance the outcome.

"I mix cement and sand before getting to work on the designs, which mainly portray messages of peace through nature," Ogomo says.Wall Drawings

He asks owners of homes what they like to have drawn on their walls, something that would make them relaxed.

"I ask home owners the designs they want on their walls. There are people who feel calm with sculptures of people, animals, natural outlines like hills," Ogomo says.

The retired teacher has made designs of African women, wild animals and landscapes on walls of houses reconstructed after they were destroyed during the skirmishes.

Some of the houses, which Ogomo has used his talent to embellish are in Migosi estate, which was among the hotspots during the violence that rocked the lakeside town.

Most property owners who have resolved to reconstruct their houses want designs that would rub the past off.

Designs of heads of animals like elephants, lions, rhinos and zebras are among the most preferred on both new houses and those under reconstruction.

"There are also people who have asked me whether I can make sculptures on their walls on world renowned personalities who promote peace," Ogomo says.Mother Teresa

Personalities like Nelson Mandela, the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta and The Pope of the Catholic Church are among the most demanded.

Home owners are parting with at least Sh20,000 per deisgn of relief sculptures that transform their walls in a way they had not known before.

"I charge clients depending on the sizes of the sculptures. Full wall faces can go for Sh20,000, depending on what I am to draw," Ogomo says.

Property worth millions of shillings was destroyed during post-election skirmishes that left over 1,300 people dead and over 300,000 homeless.

Ogomo says it takes him three to four days to complete one painting, saying diligence and patience are overriding prerequisites.Correct Proportions

"I have to sketch the designs before mixing the correct proportions of water, sand and cement to ensure they hold on the surface and bring out the colour," says the father of two.

Maseno University (MU) Department of Creative and Performing Arts chairman Dr Caleb Okumu says: "Creative art can be used to bring peace, love ad harmony among humanity. Art appeals directly to the heart and conveys the message the artists wants."

Coventry University Centre for Peace and Reconciliation Studies senior lecturer Carol Ranks says creativity in humans towards peace helps achieve it.

"To create a culture of peace, we must first imagine it, and the arts can help us do that, for ourselves and future generations," Dr Ranks says.

Ranks expressed her sentiments in a paper, Promoting Peace through the Arts: the Role of Anti-War and Peace Art in Building Cultures of Peace.

Kenyatta University scholar Prof Charles Nyakiti who takes time off from books to play Nyatiti – an eight stringed lyre – concurs with his counterparts.

"Scholars and philosophers like Plato and Pythagoras studied Mathematics, Music, Astronomy and Medicine but used art for peace and relaxation," argues Prof Nyakiti.

Ogomo is not only a relief sculptor but is also talented in painting pictures on canvas and making sculptures of human beings using clay.

His passion for art dates back to his days as a pupil at Kileleshwa Primary School in Nairobi.

"I perfected my skills at Maranda High School, Siaya where I did my ‘O’ Levels and Kisii High School where I sat ‘A’ Levels," Ogomo says.