Artist trumps odds to stand out
October 10, 2002 was a monumental day. It would be the last Moi Day-the eponymously-named holiday for President Daniel Moi, who would be retiring that December. And so to commemorate the day, the President decided to tour Joy Town Secondary School for special needs students.
That the President would be visiting Joy Town had been relayed on short notice, and as the management of the school located near Thika huddled to ponder on a fitting memento to gift him, they agreed that a painting of Mr Moi by one of the students would do: it would be personal. A Form Two art student, Martin Ngugi, was tabbed for the work.
For the next few days, Ngugi sat at his desk in the art room, working every tiny detail. “I was nervous,” says Ngugi, who at the point had been tepid about pursuing art as a future career. But when he stood in line to present the painting to President Moi, the smile on the powerful man’s face was all young Ngugi needed to know he had done a good job.
IMPRESSED
“He was really impressed when I gave the painting to him,” Ngugi says. It was an affirmation that would see him keep painting, and two years later was the lone student of the hitherto sizeable class to sit the KCSE Art examination. The rest of the students had dropped out.
Martin Ngugi, 34, was born with shortened arms, with a single finger on the right arm and two on the left. Growing up in Molo, Nakuru County, Ngugi experienced stigma. People would stare at the boy with “the hands”, and mean children would snigger at the different child in their midst. At one point, it became so bad that Ngugi quit the school he was attending after being there for only three weeks. “It does affect you especially in primary school when you haven’t discovered who you are,” Ngugi says of those early days.
Ngugi hadn’t yet discovered himself – his talent; sure he could draw a picture on a dare and received praise from his teachers, but as he describes it, he wasn’t sure, “if they were just saying nice words to keep my spirits up”.
It was at Joy Town that Ngugi glimpsed at a future that might include art as a career, and not merely a hobby after he enrolled for Art class. The Moi portrait was the wood he needed to stoke his fire. After secondary school, Ngugi enrolled at Buru Buru Institute of Fine Arts in Nairobi to study graphic design.
EMPLOYMENT
Ngugi, known in social media circles as Mchoraji, initially looked for formal work but would soon tire of the grind.
“I think I am just not meant for formal employment,” he explains. Over the past nine years Ngugi, whose repertoire includes portraiture, nature art, graphic design and illustrations, has been working as a freelance artist. He prefers this because of the freedom it affords him to work on multiple projects.
But nature art is his favourite genre. Currently, he is involved in a wildlife/environment conservancy-related project. In the past, he has won contracts to do illustrations for publishing firms Oxford, Longhorn among others.
Contemporary art, Ngugi explains, at times takes long to sell. “Due to the nature of the art market, you can’t concentrate on just one field,” he says. But that doesn’t mean that one can’t earn a decent living off art. A single portrait of a high-profile client could fetch more than $2,000 (Sh200,000), Ngugi says, adding that he once made $1000 for a logo.
PASSION
Interacting with Ngugi – observing the passion with which he approaches his trade, his upbeat disposition – invariably invites comparisons with Nick Vujicic, the well-known Ausi-American motivational speaker and author who was born without hands, but whose zeal for life would shame most able-bodied people.
Ngugi lives on his own; he does his own laundry, cooks for himself. The independence is particularly fulfilling, says Ngugi, who views his unique identity as a brand.
“You end up realising how life is and become stronger,” he adds.
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