About Inside African Art Started in 1999 and moved onto this new platform in 2015 when my old MS FrontPage platform was 'obsoleted' - Welcome!

[column size=”one-third”]

The Evolution and History of Inside African Art The beginning! Inside African Art 1999 The Original Website – Built in 1999. I didn’t know a lick of code or have even have a clue of how to build a website. Yet, in six long weeks – Inside African Art was born and alive and on the web! Inventory? 50 paintings. After six years! Inside African Art 2005 By 2005, I was pretty good at using MS FrontPage for website editing and had accumulated in the neighborhood of 400 paintings in inventory. After 11 years! Inside African Art 2010 By 2010, I had over a decade of experience and had already sold many thousands of paintings. I had 1.4 million hits on the website when I stopped keeping track. I was living in Kenya and shipping paintings all over the world. Life was good! Inside African Art as it was in 2015. The end, and a new beginning! In 2015, After 16 years, MS FrontPage was dumped (not supported), by all website hosting services. So I went to work learning Word Press – and here we are in January 2016 – a new website! Hope you like it!

[/column]

[column size=”two-third” last=”true”]

Let me preface this by saying, I’ve always loved original art. In Africa I found the mother load!

Let’s see… I moved to Kenya in 1989, with a two-year contract to work with a government agency in Nairobi. Immediately on landing in Nairobi I was struck by the sights, sounds and smells of Africa. It didn’t take long for me to discover all of the incredible art galleries in town – and in a short time I found myself with quite an impressive collection of paintings and African art of all sorts.

When my contract was over there was no way I was going to leave. In addition to my wonderful art collection, I had made many good friends and truly, I was in love with life in Kenya. It was during this time that things were brewing in Somalia – it was the ‘Blackhawk Down’ era – so I took a humanitarian relief job with a United Nations implementation agency and was sent to Bardera, Somalia. After my stint there, from which I am still shell-shocked to this day, I was sent to post-genocide Rwanda (on day 101 of the 100-day slaughter), where I spent two years managing the rehabilitation efforts in the southwest prefecture of Cyangugu.

All this time and everywhere I went I met local artists and continued to collect local art. After Rwanda I went to South Sudan for a couple more years – and finally when I had enough of war zones I started a perfect job in Nairobi as the Deputy Director of KickStart Kenya – the makers of the Money maker irrigation pump for very peaceful farmers… no war, no guns, no running – which was great because by this time I was married to a wonderful Kenyan woman, and she was pregnant!

It was time to settle down, enjoy life with my wife and kid – and build a website to market all of the fantastic art that I had collected from the many artists I had met in the course of the previous decade. Below you can see some of the artist with whom I work directly. From them, to me, to you. (continued below the gallery)

In life it’s not often that there is a ‘Win-Win-Win’ scenario – but we can make it happen here! You win because you receive a beautiful original painting from an Africa artist at a reasonable price, the artists win because using their skills and talent to make money and provide security (shelter, food, medicine, schooling), for their family is what they live for – ultimately they are the biggest winners. And I win because the small profit I make from the sale of paintings maintains this website by providing funds for the purchase of more paintings from more African artists, hosting services, website upgrades and shipping supplies. Win-Win-Win!
Below: Me with some of my friends, the artists:

[/column]