These spectacular artworks were created by second-year advertising student and our very own PR director Anokhi Dodhia.
Dodhia was raised in the beautiful country of Kenya, where she was surrounded by an abundance of wildlife and culture from the country’s 44 different tribes. This experience inspired her creative journey and helped her find her voice. This series features illustrations based on her childhood there.
Dodhia starts her story by describing the four-wheel drive vehicle her father drove her around in to witness the beautiful African sunrises when she was around the age of five. He took her to the Maasai Mara, one of Kenya’s most famous national parks, and a place she dreamily describes as having “golden savannah plains.” This landmark became the basis for all of her art to this day.
As she continued to grow, so did her passion for photography and art as she explored more and more of the African wildlife. Fueled by the beauty of the savanna plains around her, Dodhia pushed herself to experiment with color, texture and techniques to gain a larger understanding of artistic principles way past the classroom. She created a symbiotic relationship between her photography and her art by painting the beautiful images she took on film.
Dodhia also found inspiration in artists like Georgia O’Keefe and Van Gough, who expressed the phases of their lives and their moods through painting the objects and spaces in their everyday lives. Dodhia applied these ideals to her depictions of the Kenyan wildlife and further illuminated it through the usage of many different mediums such as watercolor, paints, charcoal and digital programs such as Adobe Illustrator.
Dodhia stated, “We live in a world where art starts conversations, provokes ideas and adds color to our lives.” She would love for her art to start conservations about wildlife and spark appreciation for the culture of Kenya. Dodhia has devoted her resources to creating and selling her work to raise money for groups like the Friends of the Nairobi National Park and the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. She wants to continue creating series like these in order to raise awareness for these issues.
