Margaretta's Jua Kali Diary: PATRICK MUKABI: THE BABA SUPAA WHO BRINGS ART TO CHILDREN ON CITIZEN TV EVERY WEEK

Saturday Nation

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Patrick Mukabi: Master mentor and teacher finally has space to call his own

PATRICK MUKABI: GENEROUS MENTOR OF A MULTITUDE OF ASPIRING ARTISTS, BOTH YOUNG AND OLD

by margaretta wa Gacheru

Patrick Mukabi aka Papa Supaa (to those TV fans who watch him teach children about art regularly on Saturday mornings during the ‘Know Zone’ which is part of Makutano Junction on Citizen TV) had been sharing his studio space for years with countless up-and-coming young artists keen to rub shoulders and learn from the Master Mwalimu Mukabi.

Mukabi always had an open door policy at the GoDown Art Centre where he’d been a resident artist practically from the day the GoDown was born at the turn of the new millennium.

SPACE TO CALL HIS OWN

But the time came when Mukabi realised he needed studio space that was all his own. Not that his new ‘Dust Depo Art Studio,’ situated just next door to the old Railway Museum, isn’t still welcoming aspiring young Kenyan artists (and those from other countries as well, such as China, Holland, UK and USA).

It’s just that since April 1^st when Mukabi fully and finally moved into the space that used to be known as the Railway Museum Art Studio, he’s now in charge of how his studio is run.

He had never planned to move into spaces related to the Railways but now that he’s in, Mukabi says he feels as if, in a way, he has ‘come home’.

That’s because his father was a top executive with Kenya Railways which meant some of Mukabi’s happiest times growing up were on trains traveling first class with his family as it was one sure way his father could have quality time with his son.

The real irony of his ‘coming back’ to railways turf is that even his grandfather Mukabi was an employee of the East African Railways.

“He used to sleep in the back of the train since his work involved him traveling back and forth, from the Coast to Kampala and back,” Mukabi recalled.

A KENYAN CLASSIC

His grandfather also often took his family with him on his travels.

“Since my grandmother, my father’s mother, died when my dad was still a small boy, my grandfather would take him with him so my dad ended up learning nearly every language of the people who lived on or near the railway line,” he said.

Today, Patrick Mukabi is in a sense also doing as his father and grandfather had done. He too is bringing along young people, many of whom consider him their number one mentor (meaning more like a father), as they journey towards constructing a really strong contemporary Kenyan arts community.

Already, many of the young artists who’ve studied under him, youth like Nadia Wamunyu, Alex Mbevo and Dickson Kaloki, have gone on to make names for themselves as ‘emerging’ East African artists of merit.

Mukabi is definitely a Kenyan classic, a generous spirit and soulful mwalimu who’s recognised all over Kenya and beyond for the quality of his art.

They’re not surprised to hear that Mukabi also has a mentor, only that Michelangelo died several centuries back; but he’s still a key source of inspiration and serves as such a high standard of excellence that Mukabi humbly admits that he still has a lot to learn as a fine artist.