Murrel Aluoch

Murrel is 27 years old and lives in the Utawala area of Nairobi, Kenya with her son and younger relatives.

Before she joined Uweza Art Gallery, she was doing a little bit of everything to make ends meet, primarily focusing on customer service work. She heard about the gallery through word of mouth and joined as an artist in 2018. She is currently one of three female artists at the gallery.

Since joining, she has seen her life change as she can now earn an income as her passion and it's no longer just a hobby. However, she still struggles sometimes with relying on art as sales are not always regular.

Her favorite subject to paint is children. She loves how they live in their own carefree world, even in the midst of chaos. It's their smiles, giggles, cries, laughter, all these emotions. Yet they still find contentment when they play and they forget about everything.

She hopes that other people will see, about artists in Kenya, that "we're really passionate about our art. We might not always have the best art materials and that's where our creativity kicks in. We make really amazing art pieces from what we have."

In the future, her dream is to be a full-time artist. In a mostly male-dominated industry, she hopes to leave a legacy and inspire other up and coming female artists.

Murrel can be found on Instagram at @murrel_aluoch.