A love letter to the human condition
Being a creator is the closest we can get, within the human condition, to being a god.
From my perspective, there are three core facets of that: tension, reasoning, and creating. Each distinct, yet intertwined.
Every day we reason through the tensions of life.
I'm tired, but I need to go to a friend's birthday party. Do I put my personal satisfaction over community? How many times is too many?
These are the questions we grapple with. And we take that for granted when we offload the power of deciding to a robot.
The ability of an artist to make something from nothing is divinity incarnate. Every choice, every decision, every line drawn stems from a memory or an experience the maker has lived. There's a deeper meaning in each creation that may not be immediately obvious. That's the beauty of human art: it holds endless interpretations, because the person who made it is endlessly complex. Sitting with the tensions of life and reasoning through them is what makes creating so difficult, yet so rewarding.
As a protest and a love letter, I decided to grapple with my own creativity and make something outside the realm of artificial intelligence. I stretched myself to learn new skills and build talents that only came through trying and failing.
J.P. KANMA is the embodiment of that. I made this. I toiled for this. I researched this. I began this. I drew it all on a screen and it's sewn in a factory, but every choice was mine. A tool didn’t decide anything for me.
Countless hours watching videos on how to draw nine-head figures, learning color theory, sketching silhouettes, taking sewing classes all to form my own point of view. Countless meetings, fittings, and emails to get the fit right on a larger body. The body type that is so often an afterthought.
Countless decisions I had to evaluate, research, and form an opinion on to get the brand where it is today.
I researched henna and found that laali is the Yoruba word for it. The plant isn't native to Nigeria, but henna traveled there and became part of how people mark weddings and celebrations. I drew the artwork from the henna I've seen at wedding ceremonies and from my memory of watching Naruto. I chose to make the design asymmetrical because I like peak-a-boo art. I'm expressing my tastes, my cultures, and my memories in every step.
This has been a journey of learning and reasoning, all to create something deeply human.
Everything I do is proof that a person made this. That a person decided this. So each time you wear it, you’re wearing a piece of my human condition.
See image below for how my drawing skills started:
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