The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
By Joan Akello
Mayanja Richard Weazher is a contemporary fine artist with a specialty in painting, sculpture, drawing, novel writing and playing musical instruments.
His works focus on beautifying and preserving the environment, creating solutions to the community’s basic needs, and communicating to the community through cultural themes. “For instance, my sculpture pieces are made from 90% garbage recycled material, which helps me to explore new artistic ventures of solid waste management,” says Mayanja. His art works depict the beautiful compositions of music and other traditional props, fish and animals with a message that promotes patriotism in the community. Mayanja’s love for art dates back to the time he was only six when he would mold with clay and make shadings with colored pencils. Armed with a diploma in music and a degree in Art and Industrial Design, Mayanja previously worked as an art instructor for performing and visual arts until he rose to the ranks of a lecturer at Kyambogo University. This further prompted him to open an art studio dubbed Series Art Studio in Entebbe.
Success tips: Creativity and hard work
From starting out as an instrumentalist to practicing contemporary art and establishing his own studio, Mayanja reveals that it has always been hard work and the drive to innovate new styles in the industry. “Ugandan artistes should exhibit hard work and develop an attitude of creativity so that they can manage to cut through to audiences in the different corners of the world,” he says. Mayanja is currently experimenting with a new style of art dubbed “functional sculpture” that seeks to utilize plastic waste. Bottles of mineral water and polythene bags, he says, can make ‘functional sculpture’ in the form of fountains, outdoor seats, lamp posts etc.
