Collins Omondi, a pencil artist who went viral for a splendid drawing of American comedian Steve Harvey, got his career breakthrough in 2013.
This is after the artist blew social media in the said year with a pencil portrait of President Uhuru Kenyatta in military fatigue.
The portrait impressed many social media users who shared it until it attracted the attention of the president himself.
Omondi's work got him a personal invitation to State House from the president, who was intrigued by the drawing.
Their meeting birthed a number of referrals and jobs from State House that would kickstart Omondi's career.
Omondi has drawn a couple of other portraits including that of; former US President Barrack Obama when he visited Kenya in 2015, Opposition leader Raila Odinga, the late Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, Citizen TV anchor Jeff Koinange, former Nairobi governor aspirant Peter Kenneth and many others.
The artist caught the eye of many when he posted a drawing of Harvey online with the caption, 'Pencil drawing in progress of Steve Harvey by me, with love from Kenya. Help me tag him so he can see it.'
Kenyans on Twitter rallied behind him and tagged Steve Harvey in the replies until he was forced to respond and stated that he wanted to meet Omondi when he toured Africa.
"Now I’m looking for you it would be my honor to have this...what size is it and I’ll be in Joburg and Botswana soon let’s hook up then," he shared on Twitter.
In an interview with the Daily Nation on Wednesday, March 4, Omondi stated that Harvey's time had contacted him privately.
"He wanted my private details so that he could get in touch and tell me what they had organised and where we would meet up generally. We did not set a date though," Omondi stated.
Why this matters: The creative industry in Kenya is largely underfunded and while there is no scarcity of talent, many have to resort to social media stunts to have a chance at making a sale and an eventual breakthrough. Oftentimes, these attempts barely achieve the intended objective with only a few making quick sales before returning to backbreaking struggle to achieve recognition. The most successful, have been artists who have managed to attract the attention of well-known personalities as in the case of 10-year-old Sheillah Sheldone who not only met President Uhuru Kenyatta but also Uganda's Yoweri Museveni.
The bigger picture: With rising youth unemployment, companies declaring redundancies and an increasing cost of living, art provides one avenue for talented Kenyans to curve their way out of poverty. But a structure to support this industry is non-existent as Danda Jaroljmek, the founder of Circle Art Gallery states in an interview with The Standard.
"We have a very large group of artists here in Nairobi who are full-time practicing artists. They manage to survive on the making of art. In other countries, artists can supplement their income by teaching or from grants and art councils but here that doesn’t really exist."
An artists can make from about Ksh15,000 for a regular painting to up to Ksh300,000, Jaroljmek reveals.
