When it comes to matters of drawing, there are many people who draw, but few cut a niche for themselves. Drawing requires so much devotion, and in the case of Stanslaus Bwire a now seasoned artiste, we cannot talk about him without mentioning the achievements he has made so far.
A drawing talent realized in class four has positively impacted the lifestyle of Stanslaus Bwire who is the owner of Iten Digital Arts in Elgeyo Marakwet County.
When we visited Briwe he narrates how he, being small bodied and quiet in class four, used to sneak into his classroom during games time and use small pieces of chalk that were left by his teachers and sketch animals and people on the chalkboard, little did he know that it could one day be his long life career earning him a lot of money and fame.
He vividly explains how drugs and alcoholism had almost ruined his life but never gave up in his business which has gained him popularity in town and can gunner him up to Ksh 10,000 per day in peak season.
“Survival for the fittest is what kept me going when I first started the job because i faced challenges such as poor housing, starvation and delay in paying rent that resulted in monthly quarrels with the landlord but i had to persevere for a half a year. I remember being kicked out by the landlord for failing to pay rent,” Said Bwire.
To elaborate he says that he could draw easily and exactly until his classmate suspected that he was tracing all his drawings. To confirm his ability to draw, his schoolmates identified three pupils including him who were believed to be best in art in the entire school and assembled in one of the classrooms without their teachers’ knowledge and challenged them to draw a bus which each of them did it we ease.
“During our time, writing anything on the chalkboard was an offence and if caught by any teacher we were caned and even punished, so I preferred games time because no one could easily locate me”, said Stanslaus.
The biggest challenge that made him beat his competitors, is when they were challenged to draw a land rover and having seen it in a newspaper four days ago, he drew it easily and faster and everyone including a teacher who was peeping through the window was satisfied that he was the best in drawing in the whole school.
Since then, any of his teachers who wanted to draw anything for explanation in class, especially the arts and craft teacher would ask him to draw on their behalf.
This exercise gave him a good platform to build his career plus the help of his arts and craft teacher who encourage him a lot.
The completion of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) for Stanslaus opened a new chapter of distress and challenges of looking for a job which was a hard notwithstanding the fact that he had all what it took for him to produce a masterpiece but finally the idea of coming to Iten town dawned himwhere his first employer was a carpenter.
Learning carpentry for Stanslaus was easy, enjoyable and interesting because furniture decoration was his hobby and his employer gave him a conducive environment although the monthly salary of Ksh. 2500 for Stanslaus was not sufficient to cater for his daily basic needs.
He identified another employer by the name Kimeli Kimutwol, who was running a small art business and this being his field of talent he approached him with enough confidence and he was employed instantly.
Working with Kimeli opened more opportunities for Stanley for he practiced sign writing which means words or arrows that shows directions of a place and on top fine arts which includes drawings, that provides him with more love for his career.
He reveals that the daily work and interaction with Kimeli’s clients, perfected in fine arts and this being a challenge to his employer, he was assigned any work that dealt with fine arts. He worked hard to prove his ability and soon gained fame and favor in the sight of his employer and the clients.
“Determination and being trustworthy is what determines prosperity and many businesspeople especially sole proprietors fails to observe. After observing my boss’s failure to effectively deliver services to his clients on time which in absence of his boss i was accountable for the delay” admits Stanslaus
He adds that after saving an adequate amount of capital and having established enough confidence and fame, he decided to startup in his own art business in Iten town in 2008, which run smoothly with minimal challenges for one year.
In 2009, so as to reduce the workload, Stanslaus had his first employee who seemed to be faithful, determined and hardworking at first, which was contrary to the fact. Despite introducing him to alcoholism and drug abuse, when a tender was given to them, this employee would approach the client in the name of his boss and took almost three quarters of the money that sum up to sh 10,000.
Go to next page to read more
