Meet Lucky Omolo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lucky Omolo.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I was born in Nairobi, Kenya and moved to the states at the age of six. I have always had a fascination for art growing up. For example, even in elementary school, I was in a drawing club that my friends and I just made for fun. Around the middle of high school, I had devoted a majority of my time to the skateboard culture here in Phoenix and is when I would say I truly started paying attention to different forms of visual arts and performance arts. I was a skateboarder, painter, and musician. Any self-expression really fascinated and influenced me heavily. My high school art teacher was a real influence in me pursuing an art career as well. After high school still skateboarding with my friends, I attended Paradise Valley Community College on the side and just kept taking paint classes to try and figure out painting techniques to step more away from abstractness and more into realism which led to me receiving my Associates in Visual Arts.

Please tell us about your art.
For 3-4 years I would say I would just paint as a study, not pursuing any commissions or money for my paintings, but rather just making art to trade or give my friends. I was a very insecure individual when it came to my art, still kind of am. I feel that if am going to sell something I wanted to make sure it’s ya know, not a crappy product ha-ha. Furthermore, I then started traveling the country and the world a bit and took photos as references in my journeys. People of all walks of life are beautiful, and I was determined to catch intimate moments that would make the viewer hopefully see more than just a painting, but even be able to put themselves in that precise moment. Feel the weather, hear the noises around, taste the air. That was my main goal in my city and landscapes. Then the more I progressed as a painter I fell in love with figurative paintings. A lot of my friends are super rich with personality and the way they carry themselves. A majority would come off as I would say an “outcast“ or just someone who wouldn’t be traditionally painted. I decided not only to paint them, but also to attempt to put their real personalities on a canvas. I wanted to create as if the viewer doesn’t only pay attention to the techniques, but is also able to convey who they are looking at. So nowadays I just go in-between series of landscapes, cityscapes, and figurative pieces.

Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
I’ve never let events in the world really dictate what I paint. I experimented with that in the beginning stages of me painting, but the art I was creating wasn’t reflecting who I was. It just was really obvious to me that it wasn’t my thing. I’ve never been a political painter and actually, use my art to escape the craziness of today.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can see and purchase my paintings on my website luckyomoloart.com. At the moment I am working on a collective exhibition I’ll be partaking in at The “9” gallery in around seven months. Before that, I’m going to have paintings at a “trap art” show at monarch theater on March 24th. In between me working for the exhibition and preparing for that show, I should have paintings hung all around central Phoenix area. Locations like sosoba, Otro café, and herbal wellness center. Or at least that’s what I have planned for the next month.

Contact Info:

• Website: luckyomoloart.com
• Email: ste2122532@maricopa.edu
• Instagram: @boombahclot

Image Credit:
Personal photo: photo credit -Josue orozco

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