lulu kitololo, Author at Afri-love

EVENT: Home Affairs – a Cross-Cultural Installation

NOW Gallery will be celebrating London’s diverse creative landscape in a new cross-cultural installation, Home Affairs.

The exhibition is a collaboration between furniture designer Yinka Ilori, fashion designer Christine Mhando of London-based CHiCHiA and creative consultant Arieta Mujay. It features four theatrical, visually compelling conceptual spaces, brought to life with curated film, archival footage and performance. Framed by the language of traditional Nigerian & Swahili parables, the spaces will be filled with thought-provoking furniture, indigenous plants, designed objects, garments and wallpapers inspired by bespoke Khanga textiles. There will also be artwork by The installation will also be artwork by Jason Barka and Berjo Mouanga; a mural by myself, Lulu Kitololo; hand-carved wooden stools and bowls by artist Gary March and; on opening night, spoken word performances by the Bazaar Bohemian, of Project Tribe.

Art director/brand consultant Ola Shobowale (aka @imustcreatenow) is also on-board, helping to bring it all together.

Dates: 20th August – 4th September 2015
Venue: NOW Gallery, The Gateway Pavilions, Peninsula Square, Greenwich Peninsula, London SE10 0SQ

Join us this Thursday evening for the NOW Later opening night

You can expect:

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Inspired: Tropical Flora from my East African Travels

I recently returned from a wonderfully rejuvenating trip home to East Africa. Here’s the story of my trip, told through the tropical flora!

First stop was my hometown of Nairobi. I felt so lucky to wake up each morning to this – such a diverse, colourful collection of foliage. If you’ve been following my #plantsomethingdaily challenge, you know how much inspiration I derive from nature!

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Behind the Scenes with I Used To… Draw

Today I wanted to give you a behind the scenes look, from a shoot that Stacy Moore and I recently had a lot of fun with. Stacy is an educational psychologist and the founder of I used to…. We’re working together on a series of art workshops, I used to… draw, the first of which will take place at my studio, this Sunday 26th of July.

You don't have to be an artist to join us. In fact, the sessions are especially for those of us who've put aside that younger creative self. Here's a chance for that self to come out and play again!

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Plant Something Daily – June Favourites

Another month of my #plantsomethingdaily challenge has gone by and today, I will cross the halfway mark!

It’s been a great exercise in discipline, stretching my creativity and not getting hung up on trying to achieve perfection. It’s also been quite satisfying – just doodling without much restriction.

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Project Stories: African Women’s Development Fund Logo and Website Revamp

Every now and again, a project comes along that speaks to my heart, mind and soul (I’m really grateful that, after almost 5 years in business, this is becoming the rule rather than an exception!).

Working with the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) has been one of those projects. It’s merged the things I care about:

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Plant Something Daily – May Favourites

My #plantsomethingdaily art challenge continues. At this point, as much as there are days where I feel like I just don’t want to do it (usually because I’ve left it very late and all I want to do is sleep), I’m way too committed to listen to the deviant voices in my head. And of course, all of you who’ve been following the journey on Facebook and Instagram keep me accountable so, thank you!

Here are some of my favourites from May.

The pair above are actually part of a series of 3. I drew and then experimented on the computer.

Fruits and vegetables featured a few times.

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How to: screenprint, with Creativity and Noise

I have a confession to make: despite how much I enjoyed screenprinting in university, living with a screenprinter has made me lazy. Why bother when I can ask/beg Lusungu to print something for me? :). However, the more and more I witness the joys of printing, the more and more I want to try my rusty hands at it again.

Lucky for me, and you, Lusungu’s Creativity and Noise screenprinting workshops are finally here! He’s been planning them for a while and he’s finally got some dates booked.

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Reconnect with your creative self

Over the past 9 months or so, I’ve been reconnecting with something that I used to do – making art! Not for work but, just for fun – just for me. It’s been the best thing I decided to do.

My friend, Stacy Moore – a chartered psychologist – came up with a wonderful idea. She used to love making art too and has been longing to experience again, the joy which she used to derive from it. In her words:

“It seems ludicrous to me that there are activities we put a lot of time and energy into when we were young, developed talents and a love for them, and then let them all go in preference for “a proper job”.

So she’s decided to do something about it and I’m so glad to be on board.

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Creative experiments: plant collage

Soon after I moved to the UK, around 10 years ago, I bought my first house plant. It has been with me through moving house, several times (including moving city – twice!), and through all kinds of neglect (I know, shame on me). The poor thing got bent out of shape – literally.

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