Charlene Komuntale
Charlene Komuntale is a full-time digital artist and illustrator based in Uganda. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in animation from Limkokwing University, Malaysia. Afriart Gallery, located in Uganda, represents her.
Charlene has participated in the Silhouette Projects Residency Program from March to June 2021 and was a recipient of the Sanaa 2023 LK artist residency at The Mill in Adelaide, Australia. She has exhibited at African Galleries Now X Artsy, FNB Art Joburg, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair London, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, and Abu Dhabi Art.
Charlene’s work boldly portrays women in stylish fashion while debunking gender stereotypes. In our dialogue, we get to see the inspiration behind covering women’s faces, mainly for her ongoing series "Not Fragile".
How did you join Afriart Gallery?
The gallery came across my work while I was participating in the Mukumbya Musoke Art Prize in 2021. The gallery contacted me after going through the list of the top 15 artists from this competition, and everything else that followed felt like a dream. Since then, my art has been displayed in the most unexpected places. Every place that I get to show my work is unexpected because I didn’t picture myself as a contemporary artist. I had a misconceived opinion that my medium wouldn’t fall in the category of fine art because the works are digitally painted.
And I met other artists creating meaningful work. I have also participated in art fairs. I travelled to South Africa to see a room full of fascinating art. This was the ultimate experience that showed me there can be more.
Who are your most impactful artistic influences?
My influence flows from people, my faith, and my environment. My faith guides how I create because I live in God’s energy.
What are your favourite mediums?
Adobe Photoshop is my canvas. Printing on cotton rug paper intensifies the colours in my work. In the near future, I want to dabble in animation and create movement in my pieces to make them look like Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) files for my portfolio.
Aqua dresses
What themes does your work carry, and what informs them?
My work shares my perspectives on womanhood. It aims to dismantle patriarchy brought about by culture, religion, and politics while examining fragility in the present-day context. I look at how women have been influenced by these opposing factors and shed light on our strengths. For instance, I probe, "What does intimacy or vulnerability mean?" "What do culture, politics, and religion say about them?"
How did your ongoing "Not Fragile" series come about?
It was during my residency at Silhouette Projects. My first painting was an image of a woman sitting elegantly on a chair with painted nails. Her head is covered in a box titled, "Not Fragile." It was inspired by my sister, who, like many other women, has been chastised for having long, painted nails. People have questioned whether she can cook, and I see it as important that women’s worth not be reduced to culinary abilities. This was when the "Not Fragile" series was born. For this series, I always depict my subjects in this manner to show that women can indulge in things that make them feel beautiful. They do not have to forego them to be seen as the strong black woman who looks after their home.
How did the idea of having a box over a woman’s head in your art start?
In the midst of doing portraits and character illustrations, I would make pieces of black women or women with covered faces. I was tired of drawing faces all the time, so I thought of alternative ways to tell stories without necessarily including faces. And we all know how women have historically been seen but not heard. We are appreciated for our desirability but not for our voices. I imagined covering a woman’s face with a box would make a succinct, non-apologetic statement. "Not Fragile" would be the best message to pass on to encourage people to pay more attention to the voices of black women rather than physical features.
Take us through the digital art creation process.
I research what it is I am going to draw, then take pictures of my sister as reference images. I use the Adobe Photoshop app on my Wacom tablet; it has a stylus pen that allows me to draw or paint like I would on paper. Adobe Photoshop gives me access to diverse brushes and tools that I can manipulate to achieve different textures. Imagine painting with pixels. The beauty of digital painting is that I have an assortment of tangible mediums to transfer the work to. In the early days, I would print on canvas, and now I use photo archival paper, which is expensive but adds value to my work. The paper is completely made of cotton, ensuring the work looks the same today as it will for hundreds of years.
Orange dress
How do you conduct research for your work?
I have conversations with women in my family about their self-image and societal views. I am also part of a small community of believers where we meet weekly to exhaustively debate various topics like culture and corruption. I also speak with men because I want them to be allies in the feminist movement.
Reading has helped me maintain my stance. I stumbled upon a book, "Saving Truth: Finding Meaning and Clarity in a Post-Truth World," during my art residency at Afriart Gallery. One of the things that I got from it was that people prefer their subjective feelings to objective truths. We see it on social media when we are faced with the fact that women can lead, but some people still choose to go with their feelings that women cannot be leaders. When making these pieces, I considered these types of narratives about women of colour and spun them with truths.
Do you have a network of artists that you rely on, and how do you support each other?
Being a member of the Afriart Gallery community has contributed to my well-being. The gallery is invested in us, not just in the works that I create. I think it is important to be seen as a human being and not a commodity that produces work. They have made the environment warm enough to be able to share our journeys. Some of the things we hear in the art industry are that we need to be professional, we have to limit what we share, and we have to put up a façade that we are put together. The gallery has shown me that we can talk about real human experiences over coffee or tea.
Besides that, a fellow artist, Richard Atugonza, called me one day to express how proud he was of me when I felt like I did not deserve to be where I am. Equally, I do my best to encourage other artists and celebrate their achievements. I tend to see people as friends, not competitors.
How do you charge for your art?
First of all, art is priceless. However, it has to be bought, so when I attach a price to an artwork, I have to take into consideration the demand and supply of my business. If the number of people demanding my work is high, it means that it has value. Another factor that I consider is my career phase. As my career grows, so does the worth of my art. Early on in my career, my pricing was low because I had unlimited editions for my work. At present, each painting has three editions for value addition.
How have you been able to generate an income through your work?
After I completed studying for animation, I made sure to dip my feet in everything, such as portraiture (popular in African families as a gift idea), character illustration, and photography for both individual and corporate clients. One of my most memorable achievements is creating still images for the https://childsifoundation.org/ to help orphaned children find families.
Furthermore, social media has been a successful marketing tool for my art. The other thing that helped was running a natural hair product line. I decided to find other ideas aside from art to earn money from. I would make Afrocentric T-shirts to promote the hair business. All of these jobs also meant that I lost my creative spark until I joined Afriart Gallery and dedicated myself solely to creating art. A friend advised me to focus on art because it has the potential to finance all the other passion projects I might have.
royal dresses
What are your thoughts on non-fungible tokens (NFTs)?
Many people have asked if I have considered going into NFTs. The thought has crossed my mind. If enough research is made into it and it can be confirmed that it’s a stable market, then I don’t see why art platforms wouldn’t consider it. Its intention for artists to continue to make royalties for their work is a wonderful idea, but I think that at the moment, people who want to make quick money have oversaturated it, affecting the quality of art.
What does success mean for you as an artist?
I have to be happy with the work I am producing. It has to have meaning to me for it to have meaning to others. I would like to be recognized in addition to monetary or accolade compensation. I want to be able to make enough money through my art to create generational wealth for my family.
How would you describe your dream project?
Having gallery representation is a dream in itself, especially because it has allowed me to focus on art creation. I appreciate the platform and access it gives me to people who see the value of art. When I was a freelance artist, I had to wear many hats. I am still thankful for it because it taught me to multitask and how to see myself as a business.
It’s also a desire of mine to create safe and artistic spaces for women to share their stories, to be seen and heard, and for my art to be an avenue for healing. And when I align with programs whose primary pursuit is social change, I get to live out the dream.
What do you love about being a professional artist?
The art community is welcoming and uplifting. The non-artist community appreciates art even when they have little understanding of the work in its entirety. The current generation enjoys art more than our parents’ generation did. Furthermore, I am grateful that I can depict women in elegant and sophisticated ways while they recognize themselves in the work. I also love that I get to travel, immerse myself in other cultures, and appreciate what other artists are creating.
What are your least favourite aspects of professional art?
The art market is controlled by rich white people, limiting the institutionalization of art by black people and women. Some collectors buy art from students or early-career artists who have the least knowledge about the art market, only for them to resell the same artwork at inflated prices. When the value curve of the artist is unsteady, it does not look great for their career.
Working with Afriart Gallery has helped maintain demand and supply. They know which collector should buy my work because they are invested in seeing me grow and in the worth of my work.
What challenges do you face, and how do you work on addressing them?
Bad posture from working for long hours at a desk has every now and then triggered severe migraine headaches, which end up affecting the quantity of my work. Imposter syndrome is a beast on its own, and I never knew it was bad until last year. I have been taming it by looking for evidence that shows that I am a good artist. Taking breaks, exercising, eating on time, starting my work on time, drinking water, and sleeping are some of the steps I have taken to look after myself.
How has your work deepened a sense of personal awareness or growth?
For a greater part of my life, I advocated for others, but it was difficult for me to do that myself. People thought that I would be a lawyer since my mother was a lawyer and my father studied law. Doing freelance work was about what other people wanted. By producing my works, I am not only advocating for others but also for myself, as my stories intertwine with those of every other black woman. More than ever, I value my voice.
How would you advise an emerging artist?
Identify your artistic voice; it will make you stand out. Sometimes it is easy to get into trends, but when you create what is authentic to you, people will gravitate towards it. I would also advise finding a group of mentors who will offer constructive criticism. Artists will also need to understand that they are businesses, hence the need to advocate for themselves. Finally, keep learning and growing.
