Katanu Kay Sanna

Mbaya (2017: para. 2 line 1) states that Katanu Kay is a 19 year old Kenyan artist who uses traditional African fabric in her artwork. She create sculptural pieces that utilize fabric- African fabric at that, to convey colour, movement and emotions.

She started using kitenge fabric in her work when she was doing her art assignment. Where they were given a scenario to design a wall hangings for the lobby at a lodge in Masai Mara. So, she thought 'lions are animals often associated with African culture and so are kitenge fabrics', see figure 1. She merged the two and loved the outcome then she moved to mixing kitenge fabric with other paintings.(Orubo, D. 2017: 2)

Figure 1- Sanna, K. (2017). The Original Lion. Painting with Kitenge Fabric. [ONLINE]

I really like how she completes her painting with the touch of traditional fabric. This has come to a point where I have noticed that she uses the significant of this African fabric to form part of a cultural identity. A link can be drawn between her work and mine through the embracing and modernizing of traditional fabrics that resembles home as in 'Africa'. The actual fabric has been used in her artwork and I wanted to show that it is not only used in clothing but they are different ways to portray the message within the fabric. That is similar to what I want with my jewellery.