Art Piece

The common plight for any man at the peak of his talent is never really being in a situation that best exploits his ability. That was, for a long time, Tadiwa Kaunda’s dilemma. Being the eldest in a family of 3 kids and having the comfort of supportive parents didn’t waver the question at hand. What should I do with my skills? This was the coming of age question that the teenager desperately wanted to answer, one that his peers assumed he already knew. As an amazing talent, he had much given to him and much was going to be expected from him in his life. Tadiwa grew up in a country where the arts industry wasn’t as well established as in other countries. Zimbabwe was not concerned with the fine arts: luxury goods were not a priority and most of the career options were limited to graphic design, interior design, architecture and web design. There was nothing entirely wrong with these other options, but Tadiwa was an anomaly to human standards of capacity. His parents could never figure out how he was able to understand complex harmonies of art such as proportion, perspective, patterns, planes, placement, consistency, contours, conception, construction, and character, at the tender age of 7 years. He was, clearly gifted; even entering adult classified painting competitions at 9 and winning. The next Picasso, Michelangelo and so forth, was in the making and nothing could stop him. With his fervent zeal, he was introduced to comics, both from the west and eastern side by his mother. This propelled him to discover a new interest, one he was also dominate in: his hands, breathed life into the pages he touched, leaving an aura of his prowess that left many who glimpsed at his work with awe and insurmountable euphoria. Even in a country where art was mostly a hobby interest, the onlookers couldn’t help but acknowledge that the boy would eventually break the stigma that came with art in the country. As a youth, none of the complexities and connotations that were associated with art never reached his peripheral. He was a boy driven by his passion, and like a surge of energy, it overflowed to grand heights. This made him quite popular among his peers in primary school and even among some of the girls. Pulling off 3minute portrait illustrations for each request he got from his classmates and using his pencil’s led dust to do the facial tones to achieve realism in his art, made him popular. Tadiwa’s father noticed the appeal his son had and decided to monetize his son’s art for a while, playing the middle man to his child’s clientele. This however didn’t go on for far too long because of his mother’s insistence to have her son do other things other than just spending complete days just drawing. In the end, her female intuition was for the best, and the boy learned to do things outside his comfort zone. As Tadiwa grew older, he noticed that his younger brother, Anesu, had also taken up an interest in drawing, just like him, however the skill didn’t come as easily for the boy as it did for him. Tadiwa was flattered that he had managed to convince his own kin to join his own obsession and this made them instant best friends, regardless of the 6years age difference. At around age 11, Tadiwa had decided to test himself further, going beyond the use of normal paints, oil paint, ceramics and trying to understand diverse compositions. The principles of differed light, bounced back light, hues, highlights, and contrast were now second nature to him and most of his art had been done mostly on paper, boards, canvases, and so forth. He moved on to digital art, playing around with a Wacom tablet, using Photoshop cs6 and other technologies that aided him. He had nagged his father into buying him these and even made sure to do well in his academics to facilitate their delivery. At first, learning the basic work flow and functions of each tool was a hurdle, but he overcame this by watching several YouTube tutorials and reading most of the manual. Though knowing the basics was at first frustrating, he felt relieved that this knowledge had given him the capacity to make awesome work. One of his father’s colleagues who was a web developer, discussed vehemently with Tadiwa’s father about how he was having trouble coming up with a suitable front end design for his client and how he wanted to make the features more modern and user friendly. The man had visited at night and seemed really desperate, though Tadiwa had been minding his business, watching Naruto with his little brother in the living room; he decided to interlope out of curiosity. “Excuse me father and excuse me Mr. Makoto, but I couldn’t help but overhear you talk about designs and front end stuff?” asked Tadiwa, who seemed worried that he might get scolded by his father. “Oh… you mean what we are talking about, its computer related son, not art related so don’t worry about it.” replied his father. “Oh, okay… sorry for disturbing then.” he said, as he walked away. Mr. Makoto became curious to why his friend’s son had asked such a question and decided to engage him. “Hey, Tadi, why were you asking about design stuff?” asked Mr. Makoto. “Um,” he said, averting his gaze towards them, “well I am good art designs and art. So I wanted to help with designs. I am good at that so I thought I could help…” “Hmm, interesting. Baba Tadi, how come you never told me that your son is good at designs, well son, what software do you use?” “Photoshop, InDesign, Corel draw, sir.” said Tadiwa. “Well, hmm, why don’t you show me what you have done.” he said, hoping that the boy would impress him. “Okay sir; let me go get my tablet. I will be back soon.” he said, as he left with a visible smug on his face. “Why are you bothering my son? VaMakoto, aren’t you supposed to be focusing on coming up with very good ideas for your client’s website instead of entertaining my son?” asked Mr. Kaunda. “Relax Tapiwa, the boy showed interest, I might as well oblige him. Who knows he might give me some ideas that may land me this client permanently.” he said, with an air of wishful optimism. Tadiwa soon returned, with his tablet screen brimming with light and presented his work to Mr. Makoto. Tadiwa specifically opened the typography folder, banner design folder, logo designer folder, and showed him the images. Mr. Makoto was impressed by the high quality and skill of this soon to be 13year old adolescent boy and literally left his mouth ajar. Tadiwa’s father also observed the work on the tablet. He was dazzled, yet again, by his son’s craftsmanship. Mr. Makoto couldn’t help but comment, “Seems like your father had a child he doesn’t deserve.” Tadiwa wasn’t expecting this peculiar response and wasn’t sure if he was supposed to laugh or take offence. Tadiwa’s father broke into laughter and said, “Sarcasm is forbidden in this house hold.” “I am just impressed beyond words. This boy has an eye for art. You even did designs for women’s boutiques and other feminine stuff. These are really attractive colours and the fades, and cut outs are all very professional. Where did you learn how to make things at such a quality?” “I mostly watched YouTube tutorial videos on the internet sir and my friend, Emmanuel, does graphic design for a living so he gave me industry tips about the trade. I sometimes help him out.” he said, confidently as he asserted the source of his prowess. “YouTube tutorials? They offer these lessons for free?” asked Mr. Makoto with his eyes now agape as if he had just stepped on glass with his bare feet. “Well YouTube is a free posting site for personal videos, so these designers post their videos and teach people the basics to the hard and cool stuff. Anyone can access them but I have a select few who I would recommend if I wanted people to get really good. Though… it ultimately depends on how creative you are as an artist.” he said, quite shocked by the fact that Mr. Makoto assumed that these videos would have to be paid for. Mr. Makoto was definitely old but for a web developer to be that obscured about how YouTube worked, was extremely laughable he got die. “Amazing, hmm, well back in my day we always read manuals for software and figured out these things by trial, error, and reference to the theory. Well… you said there are select individuals who are good to watch, could you give me their names?” he said, taking out his phone and opening the sticky note application. “Well the ones I would definitely recommend are Aquul Photoshop Cs6, spelled as A, q, u, u, and l.” he said, enthusiastically. “Hmm, Aquul, such a strange name.” he said, as he typed it into his phone. “Webflippy, grunz, glitch effect and this guy called Asm arif.” “How do you spell this Assum guy?” asked Mr. Makoto, showing no shape after butchering the name in his first attempt. “It’s spelt as A, s, i, m and Arif as A, r, i, f.” “Good, I will gladly check them out.” “Well, now that I have shown you what I can do, can I help you with your problem Mr. Makoto?” he asked, gleefully expecting instant acceptance. “Well, no.” he said, daftly. “Huh… I don’t understand?” asked Tadiwa who seemed puzzled beyond belief. “Well you are obviously extremely talented for your age, I mean; I think you are better than most the new graduates who get hired at the graphics department where I work.” “You shouldn’t over flatter my son and don’t beat around the bush VaMakoto.” reaffirmed Mr. Kaunda. “To be quite honest, even if your skills are good for making logos and other things, it’s not the only technical requirement needed to achieve the best overall user experience design.” “Like I said Tadi, its computer related not art related so don’t worry about it.” said his father. “So if knowing how to use Photoshop isn’t enough then what technical skill should I know to be able to help you sir?” asked Tadiwa, who seemed dejected by the fact that he wasn’t needed. “Well, if you were good at programming websites… well basically extensive knowledge of JavaScript, css and html, plus in addition to your already existing art skills, then I think you would be a big help. But, as it is with the education system, I am pretty sure that most people learn programming languages in university, which is in several years’ time for you, so… you see, what I need to solve my problem requires web design knowledge of JavaScript. With that designing user friendly and appealing interface becomes possible. You kids today love using w******p and i********: because they are trendy, nice looking and easy to use. “Hmm, so basically, unless I know JavaScript I won’t be able to design a nicer looking user interface… okay, thank you for your time.” he said, immediately excusing himself and heading towards his room. Mr. Makoto had believed that the young boy had given up and had decided not to pester the adults anymore. As Tadiwa trotted to his room, he passed the living room where his brother was, who had paused the footage of the episode they were watching in hopes of resuming it once Tadiwa had returned. Tadiwa felt weird that the knowledge of his expertise in art was rejected and decided to prove that he was a valuable asset to whatever solution Mr. Makoto needed for his front end design. The boy told his younger brother to continue the episode without him. Driven by his ego, Tadiwa went into his room, accessed the internet via his desktop, and started doing research about front-end web design. He initially had never really had an interest computers or programming, but today, to prove that his passion of art would weather any storm, he decided to delve into uncharted territory. 2weeks had passed, and Mr. Makoto had come to visit again at the Kaunda household. He seemed giddy, but not in a positive light. It was just the kids and their father and Mrs. Kaunda had apparently left to visit their grandmother. Tadiwa, who seemed possessed by a desire to prove himself came and interrupted his father’s talk with the man. Tadiwa then broke the ice by saying, “Good evening Mr. Makoto, excuse me but I remember you said if I wanted to help you, I should know some programming and mainly JavaScript?” “Hmm, I thought you had given up, but well, it’s kind of too late now, besides are you saying you learnt JavaScript?” asked Mr. Makoto who seemed a bit cynical in his tone. “Yes, I have and I made 5 cool looking websites… well they are not yet live, but I will post the one I really like.” he said with a stern look on his face. “Oh really, hmm, this should be fun.” said Mr. Makoto. “Tadi, I told you that this is some computer stuff that you don’t really like. You like art and design so your skills are not going to help. So stop bothering the adults and go play with your brother.” said Mr. Kaunda. “Father, I now also like computers, well it’s not as fun as drawing, but they are similar. Web design is a different kind of art, an art I am not used to, but I am happy. There is more to art than just drawing on paper or playing with images on Photoshop. I promise you I am not going to waste Mr. Makoto’s time.” “Come on, well, let’s give the boy his chance to prove himself.” he said, with an air of mockery. Though Tadiwa was a behemoth of an artist and designer, even for his age, coding was something that took a lot of time, precision, practice, and extensive knowledge. No matter how special Tadiwa was, there was no way he could have gotten very good at JavaScript, website database scripting and so forth within the last 2 weeks since they talked. What this doubting Thomas did not expect was to be blown away by the young man’s sample sites. This time, both Mr. Kaunda and Mr. Makoto’s mouths were agape. The websites that Tadiwa had shown them, were fantastic, and even the source code was well done. Mr. Makoto still had his reservations and then asked the boy, “Did you ask a friend or pay someone to do this for you, I mean it’s impressive, but you can be totally honest with me. If you didn’t code this yourself then please confess.” “Hmm, I guess I haven’t convinced you yet that my art is very good, hmm, let me show you!” said Tadiwa, who seemed energized and invigorated. This was the first time in his life he had felt like his art, which always got overall praise from everyone, needed its worth to be justified. Recalling the tutorials and the fantastic website for web design, w3schools.com, which had a plethora of tutorials he had practiced day and night during those 2weeks, he opened the application notepad++. This was an application for scripting code and he decided to show Mr. Makoto and his father how he codes from scratch. The boy was swift and put all his html tags, css and everything he needed to make it look good as well as using scalable vector graphics and external link relations. Mr. Makoto’s heart almost stopped as he glimpsed for himself how absurd the process was. Within 30minutes, he had made something and as soon as he decided to run it on his tablet, the google chrome web-browser popped up and what appeared was a majestic site, with a glossy interface that could make infants blush. Aesthetically it was pleasing to the eyes, functionally; it was decent, but easy to navigate. As Mr. Makoto glanced back and forth from the tablet to the boy, he then looked at Mr. Kaunda and said, “Seems like your father had a child he doesn’t deserve.” The night had ended well for Tadiwa whose boost of self-esteem came and electrified him. Mr. Kaunda contemplated where in the hell his son’s intelligence had come from and surely questioned whether or not these were ancient genes that were pass onto his boy. Mr. Makoto accepted the boy"s help and coded alongside him for close to 3hours. Tadiwa’s artistic youthfulness and Mr. Makoto’s experience combined to make a plausible end product. Tadiwa at the end was rewarded with some spending money, which was pretty much pocket change. Mr. Makoto’s pay cut was obviously going to be greater, but Mr. Kaunda insisted that his son not get a huge remuneration and essentially, his son did offer to help out of his own free will. As the night passed on into the later hours, Tadiwa retired into his bedroom, where his young brother was still wide awake. As Tadiwa tucked himself in bed, he began to state things that he had learned over the past 2weeks. “Anesu, I learnt something important.” “What is it big brother?” asked the soft voice of this youth. “I used to think art was just about drawing, making cool designs and stuff like animation. Using drawing tablets, paper e.t.c, were pretty much the limit of imagination.” he said, with a stoic gaze. “But, isn’t that what cool art is bro?” asked Anesu. “Not entirely, well I used to think that way, but well there is more to art than what makes life.” “Huh, I don’t get it?” “Of course you wouldn’t, you are still simple minded and haven’t trained yourself to think critically.” he said, annoyed by the fact that his brother didn’t instantly get it. “Hey, don’t make fun of me. If I don’t get it, I don’t. Don’t be a jerk. You always say that’ that person should explain better.” “Okay, my bad. You really caught me in my own words… well basically what I meant is you can do a lot more with art and art can make you learn things you thought were not related to art but are.” “Is that why you said you were learning JavaScript, the computer number language?” asked Anesu, sternly. “Yeah, I mean art is everywhere, from like fashion, to games to movies. I mean dance choreography, video editing, fashion designing, calligraphy, food styling, web design, tattoos, hair styling, photography, and even complex stuff like visual effects compositing. I mean there is this guy called Richard Taylor who did the art for lord of the rings and those lame hobbit films, well except for the third one.” “Seems like big brother knows a lot about drawing… you should teach your younger brother more so that he knows what you are talking about all the time.” he said, scornfully. Tadiwa laughed at the remark and said, “Alright, I will teach you some cool stuff. Well goodnight.” It was another night’s rest for the boy, but what he had learned over the past 2weeks would affect him for the rest of his life. Tadiwa was merely in the prerequisite stages of his life, in preparation for the coming phenomenon. That phenomenon was a world different from his that was ready to accommodate him, as soon as he was ready to come to the other side. When that time would come, he would never be the same. *Baba …………………………………………means father *Tadi……………………………….means Tadiwa for short *Va……………………………….title prefix similar to Mr.