leku

This is a post about a very talented young man named Leku Ivan.

Leku lives at St. Mary Kevin Orphanage, and if he had his way he would spend every waking minute of every day with a paintbrush, charcoal pencil or oil crayon in his hand.

The first time I watched Leku go into a room where artwork was hanging on the walls, I knew I in the presence of someone pretty extraordinary. He said nothing. He approached each piece slowly, one at a time. He didn’t just look at the drawing, painting or photograph. Leku ran his long, delicate fingers along the dips and swirls of each brush stroke and along each hard edge. He did this almost as if he had slipped into some kind a trance. While his fingers traced the movement of the lines, Leku seemed to absorb each bit of visual information, memorizing it for possible use later.

Leku is quiet. He’s fifteen years old. He seems solemn and wise. But I have seen the young man dance, and he can have fun and shake his body like there is no tomorrow. And he can grin, too. One of those broad, genuine smiles that pretty much stretches from one ear to the other.




I like Leku a lot. So does everyone who meets him. He’s got a sweet, sincere, gentle demeanor. He’s extremely kind, humble and polite. He’s just good.

He is fortunate to have recently been taken in under the wing of a Ugandan artist from Jinja, a young painter who has welcomed Leku into his studio during school holidays to give him private lessons and to introduce him to the life of being a professional artist.




When our team was at the orphanage in December, Leku had just returned from Jinja and could be found in the SMK art room from sun up to sun down (and sometimes even later). That’s because our team arrived bearing bags full of canvas, paint, drawing paper, brushes and pencils. While making art, Leku always wore the same t-shirt and shorts, both of which bore testament to his choice of colors.



This young artist has been in a comfort zone of making familiar East African imagery: bold, colorful landscapes, women carrying things on their head, animals in the wild, babies with their mothers, men hunting in the village. I showed Leku some art books - work I thought might help him stretch out of that zone. He and I talked about finding our own voice in our work.




He was mesmerized by the Gaugins, Chagalls and Van Goghs in the books I brought. He drank in each new idea. We talked, he looked, he thought, he painted. He painted and painted.

I brought home many Leku Ivan originals, and they will be for sale at the CTT Annual Friendraiser/Fundraiser this June. You can see for yourself how Leku’s work has matured after lots of looking, thinking, talking and painting. This young man doesn’t have access to many art supplies during the school year. He knows, though, that when the CTT teams shows up each December, he’s going to be in art heaven.

Leku made his first sale while our team was there. The reservations manager at our hotel is the happy new owner of this great piece.




Here is a sampling of some of work YOU could own if you attend the fundraiser in June! Much more information about that will follow.