RP-Department of Art and Design

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Browsing RP-Department of Art and Design by Author "Wango, Kamau"

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    How Students Think: Efficacy of Surrealism as an Avenue for the Generation and Expression of Thought among Fine Art Students at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya
    (EANSO, 2024-12) Wango, Kamau
    Surrealism is one of the most fascinating expressive genres of Art and seems to engage students in a very profound manner in the way they perceive themselves, the essence of their individuality, their inherent ideas, emotions and thought processes. In retrospect, it can be viewed from the perspective that it provides a unique opportunity for individual students to express points of view from imageries that emanate from the state of their minds. At the University level, surrealism particularly in drawing, has emerged as a potent visual consolidation of the ability of students to galvanize thoughtfulness that applies to their personal psyche and general outlook towards occurrences and upheavals in their lives. This study sought to examine how students think through surrealist inspirations as a basis of their imaginative work and the extent to which they were able to internalize and embed the basic tenets of surrealism such as distortion of forms, bizarreness of composition or grotesqueness in artistic compositions of their own. The study also sought to determine if indeed these new surrealist compositions carried any social message that was derived from the drawings themselves in order to underscore possible contextual meaning. The final year cohort of students involved in this study had not done any surrealist work before and were introduced to the concept of surrealism and its potential for individual expression through the discussion of selected previous works of past students at the same level. This was deemed useful as they were able to initially internalize the nature of compositions and the possible derivation of surrealist images such as those that manifest in the subconscious mind and other dreamlike dispensations. The students subsequently produced a significant body of work from which pieces were selected for this study using the criteria of visual impact such as profoundness of the surrealism, level of execution using pencil and social message. The analysis of the work was done using the analytical framework provided. The students were engaged in weekly class presentations of their individual work that provided the opportunity for critiquing.
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    How Students View Themselves: Use of Self-Portraiture as an Avenue for Expression of the Self among Diploma Art Students at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya
    (EANSO, 2025-08) Wango, Kamau
    When students create portraits, they approach the assignment with an open mind, with the basic purpose of creating a picture bearing a significant likeness of the subject. It is subsequently presumed that when they draw their self-portraits, this quest to portray an accurate likeness is enhanced and attracts their specific interest. This study sought to find out whether, in the formative Diploma stage in drawing, students were able to meet the basic expectations of portrait drawing. Although this was not designed to be a comparative study with other units at the degree level, it also sought to find out whether the level of entry was a factor in the definition of quality of work as defined in portraiture. The study selected 24 self-portrait drawings that were deemed to have attained a significant level of completion within the time frame allocated. The level of completion here referred to a holistic depiction of the self that was adequate to enable analysis. The drawings were analysed using formal analysis through the examination of regular elements such as line, shape, light and shade, and texture, as well as the application of principles such as proportion and balance. Students were encouraged to draw using freehand. The analysis also included the basic approaches to drawing portraits, such as placement and alignment of eyes, nose, mouth, hairline, cheekbones, chin, and facial edges. The analysis also included the presence of the concept of likeness, which is a critical factor in the essence of portraiture; the self must appear as the self to a significant extent for self- gratification It can be deduced from the study that students emanated significant satisfaction in creating self-portraits through drawing particularly in attaining a certain degree of ‘self-likeness’. It can also be deduced that self-portraits bear the visual tendency to provide a veneer of selfexamination akin to peering through a mirror. The study concluded that this incursion into the self was an important visual assessment of how students ultimately viewed themselves, although they understood their innate personalities from the onset.