For decades, gifted people have been using art to express themselves. It serves as their tool to make people see the world from their perspective. It is a power that only a few people possess. Despite being such a rare and precious trait, it is often overlooked and does not receive the attention it deserves.
It is one of the toughest jobs to make people observe the world from a specific person’s viewpoint and understand their perspective. It is only artists, including singers, songwriters, painters, sketchers, designers and several others, that have the potential to do that.
A visual artist, who is succeeding in his attempt to make people understand his view of this world is Kenny Kenglomerate. He is slowly acquiring a prominent identity in the world of visual arts with his eccentric style and expertise in photo manipulation. Even though he is in the early stage of this profession, this 48-year-old hip-hop pioneer, caught the attention of many through his artwork, Strategic Thoughts. The piece resonates with the current situation, the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19), which turned into a pandemic, taking the lives of millions while putting thousands of others at risk.
As an artist, he wanted to create a piece that could perfectly portray what the world was going through during the spread of this epidemic. Strategic Thoughts is a masterpiece, not because it is exceptional art, but because of the way it presents the current situation of the word. His artwork is a thoughtful amalgamation of concern, anxiety, fear, uncertainty, pain, and loss. The chess board is the world’s attempt to overcome this crisis and how people are moving forward with their lives. His piece also includes a masked woman, representing the most powerful piece on the chessboard, the Queen. The strength of a woman was important to capture in this art piece because women are the back bones of most families.
Journey of the Tattooed Artist – Rise of Mindtography
The New Yorker, Kenneth Nealy, was born in Brooklyn on July 21, 1972. The son of Euless and Myrtle was always fond of art. From singing, dancing, to designing, creativity was innate. He possessed the power to view the world differently and always wished that the world could understand his perspective of the world.
He chose singing and rapping as a medium to express himself, but it did not put a stop to his search of “finding a way to capture life’s greatest moments and make them last forever.” His search came to an end when he realized that singing, rapping, and dancing were not the only ways to communicate with the world. He found graphic designing, and that was his opportunity to fulfill his passion and desire to make people from all across the globe see the world from his perspective.
After building a career as a singer and rapper, he stepped into the visual arts field. With a background in graphic design, Kenneth decided to expand his portfolio to include visual arts masterpieces. He took up “Kenny Kenglomerate” as his artist-name. Kenny started by getting a tattoo on the back of his left hand. The tattoo on his hand read, “Create.”
When he was asked about what caused him to choose this word as a tattoo, he stated, “Tattoos often represent feelings and thoughts that are unspoken or trapped in one’s self-consciousness battling ill at easement. In my case, the signature body art hand tattoo – CREATE was totally the opposite. The crossroads of my Hip Hop journey instilled a sense of psychological resilience, which allowed my imagination, and dreams to manifest freely. Simply put,… tattoos are permanent, but the tattoo CREATE symbolizes evolving endlessly. The placement on the hand is in relation to giving back or sharing GODS gifts with the world.”
Kenny found his love for visual arts after he performed for the legendary rapper, Kool G Rap. As soon as he started creating his designs, he realized that the missing key that he had always been looking for to capture beautiful and memorable moments had always been right in front of him in the form of graphic designing.
The categories that he generally creates his art pieces include; heritage, spiritual, inspirational, athletes, urban legends, and artoonz. He has also coined a unique term in the field of visual arts, “Mindtography,” that perfectly describes the artistic pieces Kenny creates. According to the modern visual artist describes his term in the following words, “A mindtographer can be described as a photo illusionist that creates aesthetic forms of art in a digital format; creating unbelievable visuals that merge between worlds of fantasy and reality.”
Besides being a visual artist, mindtographer to be specific, the passionate Kenny Kenglomerate is a professional Hip Hop dancer, member of the R&B group- TCF Crew, visual artist, and clothing designer. He is the founder of Fiya Apparel. Kenny admires all forms of art and respects all types of artists.
He states, “Artists are a rare breed of individuals. We are gifted with the ability to spark thoughts that speak to the soul, with the heart to dare to be different running in our veins. Your mind is a canvas filled with abstract ideas ready to be unveiled. The masterpiece is within you, and the history left behind is the paint dripping, and beautiful hue carried throughout generations.” Kenny is one of those individuals who possess the power to make people observe the world from a different perspective. The creator of the term, Mindtography, Kenny, is impressing the world by bringing his concepts in the field of visuals arts.