Kenya

_{Posted on Thursday 2-8-2007}

_{Join us at Alliance Française de Nairobi}

_{for the opening of the exhibition of paintings}

MENTALITY

by Jes’seng’ang’a

_{on Wednesday, 8th August at 6.30pm}

 _{Venez-nous rejoindre à l’Alliance Française de Nairobi}

_{pour le vernissage de l’exposition de peintures}

MENTALITY

de Jes’seng’ang’a

_{le mercredi 8 août à 18h30}

_{Jes’seng’ang’a invites you to contemplate on the ugly side of human nature.}

_{Jes’seng’ang’a’s art is inspired by working with people faced with special challenges in their lives, especially the homeless street children through the Kuruka Maisha rehabilitation programme, and the mentally ill at the Mathare Mental Hospital.}

_{A cartoonist and illustrator for a local journal, 25 yr-old Jesse volunteered to give classes to street children of the Kuruka Maisha programme in 2003. Drawing cartoons was not easy for the boys, so they chose to initiate them to painting instead, and that is how Jesse got started. In 2004, Jesse joined the Mathare Mental Hospital as a volunteer, assisting doctors, through conversation and art, to reach out to the mentally ill.}

 _{Jesse’s paintings are about the subconscious.  He says: ‘humans are imperfect and incomplete and that is what we should expect from them.  I believe in beauty, in ugliness and honesty.  When some things in life appear flawless, I am tempted to ask why.  Everything has genuine flaws.  I want to address human problems, sad and not happy issues, because these have more impact on our lives than those few happy moments that we sometimes experience.  Problems causes pain thus I address pain because it is universal’.}

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