Maria Naita: Sculpturing her heart to the world

“I once told an artist that we shall have a place where we can mess ourselves up.” An elated Maria Naita resounds her plans for her future in art.
Dressed in a blue overall and a head scarf holding her hair back, Naita says artists are at times messy given the splatters of paint and clay, but their own spaces gives them that liberty without minding what people say.

When she clutches a saw to hack through metal, she does it with a knack that speaks for her; several installations and sculptures around East Africa.
Walking past the Uganda Parliament, a brownish towering sculpture of child between a bare chest man and a woman raising a flag stamped with the Chogm symbol marvels the eye. This is just one among Naita’s works. As a child, Naita used to make her own dolls and was fascinated by art that she would fill their family home with paintings. Ronah Lwanga Kamba, her younger sister and writer, says her fondest memory of Naita’s earliest work is a portrait of their mother seated on her bed with a towel, and Jesus knocking at the door.

“We have to teach our children at an early age to appreciate art. We need to educate the young ones early enough; encourage them to go to studios, and have teachers that are more friendly to art, because it is not just a subject, but more of an expression of how you feel,” Naita passionately speaks about what she does best, with her hands expressively folding to depict this emotion.

When told that there are young artists who look up to her, modest Naita blossoms with sincerity, suggesting that she too looked up to a few people such as her lecturers Dr George Kyeyune and Prof Francis Nagenda, during her Bachelors in Fine Art at Margaret Trowell school of Art in Makerere University.

After her Masters, specialising in sculptures, Naita chose not to be retained to teach at Makerere. Rather, she felt the need to first go out as an artist; for she felt she had only begun this journey.

“One thing I have realised though is, I want more people in sculpture,” she states with a nod of approval. Currently, her workshop has art students registering for internship from Uganda Christian University Mukono (UCU) and Makerere University.

Naming Martin, Patrick, Immaculate and Harmony from UCU, Naita says the time she spent with them is productive, for they always learnt something new and is certain they are going places.

Getting to work

Beginning her sculpting journey in the comfort of her home, Naita gradually saw the burden of space and the inconvenience it might cast on people at home, so she chose to set up a workshop. Something dissimilar about the containers on Entebbe Road, gives off that impression of artistic niche. Hedged with concrete and metal bars, mounds of rock, stone, and huge logs of drying Muvule and Jacaranda wood tower within the compound of Naita’s working space.
The trees add a freshness to the atmosphere and the pots positioned along the walk way give off an African belonging.

The workshop has a few of her works in progress. A woman covered in blue clothing, whose upper torso curves at an angle, to depict an African woman tending to flowers. The braids on her head are that thick kind that girls back in the village had when their hair was overly grown.

After it, is a wooden sculpture of what appears like a pygmy has markings of cutting that show an unfinished piece, which Naita says was commissioned for enlargement by a Congolese. Another marvel is a man equally curved at the upper torso, feet so high, he appears a giant.

Rubbing my hands across the surface, his texture is not an entirely smooth. There is more work to be done.

Creating the beauty
“Before we come up with a sculpture, there is an idea. So we make a small model or a marquee using bees wax, then use metal (mitayimbwa) to form the skeleton of the sculpture.” An enthusiastic Maria Naita elaborates the artistic process. That smaller model is the depiction of what the enlarged piece shall appear to be. Clay is then molded to create a positive, after which is destroyed and the work is cast back to its original form.

“We usually make them naked but later add clay to the surface. We also make different poses; the woman tending to flowers was originally building” she says. The wooden pieces are curved from Muvuvle, Mugavu, Jacaranda wood (very good for beginners because of their soft material) and Elgon Tick which is dark beautiful wood and has wonderful grains. The wood requires seasoning too, and this could take up to three years.

Kenneth Senyonga, a young visual and performing artist, who is an apprentice at the workshop, further adds that the wooden pieces are burnt with fire to harden and then painted with a colour of choice.

She leads me to a large Muvule whose bark is wearing off, and suggests that big chunks are cut off to form gorges from which different sizes of the same sculpture can be created. Some pieces are curved out of granite using particular machines. But given its hard material, most artists opt for softer stone in Karamoja and more is collected when in Zimbabwe for workshops.

Material used in her work blend fibre glass, clay, aluminium, wood brass and copper. The chogm sculpture at parliament she says is made of metal- copper sheets and stainless mitayimbwa.”

Challenges
“Art is not like food...someone only pays if they are happy with what they see! Mainly someone who understands the work,” Naita says. Yet at times those who purchase the work such as expatriates do not understand what they buy, except that they saw it in some body’s house and want it too. The market is not so good either as one can’t have a lot of money put aside for sculptures. These are usually expensive,” she says.

Naita is a painter whose work on canvas is as impressive as her sculptures. But she says the market is much friendlier with paintings whose exhibitions can easily be set. Sculptures are heavy and require carrying, which is equally costly. And being a woman, there were times she had to climb up logs or bend iron bars even though she was pregnant.
“It’s challenging but it’s satisfying,” she says because it has taught her how to balance her time, and she does not want to stop. Her children are in boarding school now, with the youngest in Primary Seven and the oldest at university.

The teachers too are a discouraging factor. When it comes to art, they give students nothing concrete to make them love art. She reminisces a time when students came to the workshop with little help from their teachers who had told them to find an artist to teach them sculpturing. And at times, schools claim they have no money to purchase material, and instead trade the costs to parents who are already burdened with fees.

Naita recommends that there ought to be special funding for art, for it is a special subject. “You can’t expect a child to spend Shs70,000 on just one gorge,” she says.

As she questions what happens in public schools, because mostly international schools have brought students to tour the workshop and study the art, she advises fellow artists to get younger ones interested.

The workshop

Naita’s workshop is meant to counter these challenges. Even though a solid name has not yet been found for the space, tentatively, Foot Print is a consideration. She intends to find an African translation for Foot Print, perhaps Omukululo, her brother David Kigozi suggests.

“The place is still being put together, and some sculptures are being worked on though particular ones need material and time,” she notes.

As Senyonga, the apprentice bends an iron bar and services the welding, Naita bends over to help him hold one end of the bar, and later hits it with a harmer to break. While she does, her brother Kigozi, who also works here says “she is talented and I have learnt a lot from her.

She can’t hold herself back because she is a woman. Gone are the days when women sat home.” Kigozi smiles at the thought before he adds that “we have grown up together- I know the do’s and don’ts, but she is an easy lady to work with.”

She optimistically speaks of the future, sharing that she sees herself owning a studio on large chunk of land, where many people can work, share experiences and produce work coming from their heart. She sees it as a space where people can learn and enjoy art.

Her work is a figurative expression of life which she draws from her everyday experience and what she sees in the environment. She says she requires patience with sculptures as it may take some time to raise money and invest in a piece. She thinks artists’ expression is at times limited by client’s needs. However, since she does not want all that creativity to be lost, she does pieces that she will place and not necessarily expect them to be bought.

Her growth level
Naita has exhibited national and internationally and acquired several collectors for her work. Among her major installations, is the Chogm monument of 2007, Building the Nation 2007 for the Rwanda Revenue Authority, Kabamba Hero’s Monument 2005 (Kabamba Army Barracks) and The Ntore Dancer 2001 (Rwanda State House).

Explaining her penetration to Rwanda, Naita says a landscapist hired her for a project which required art fittings to complete the work.

Who is Maria Naita?
Born in 1968 to George Sengendo and Helen Najemba Lwanga, Naita hails from Lutette, Nakaseke, and has nine siblings. She attended Bweranyangi Girls School for O-Level and Kaku SS for A-Level, before joining Makerere University’s Margaret Trowell School of Fine Art. Married to Charles Naita, an engineer, the artist has four children.