 Yes, welcome back to Why in the Morning and this is our first segment of the day and Studio with me is a gentleman by the name George Bush, not the one that took the troops to Iraq, but Kenyan one. So Bush is a graduate of computer science and information technology, but due to lack of employment, he decided to find a way for himself and this is the outcome. Very beautiful indeed. He has an art gallery in Kiambo County in Georgia in particular and is here to share a story with us. Karibusana, Mr. George Bush. Thank you. All right, your camera is number four. Just in case you missed anything in the intro, introduce yourself. Thank you for having me this morning. As you've heard, my name is George Bush and I'm an artist. That's the title I go by right now, IT specialist or computer scientist. No, that's a plan B, that's a side hustle. That's a side hustle. Yeah, right now. In most cases, people have like a formal job and then artists side hustle, but this is the hustle for you. Yeah. All right. So I want you to take me back to before you went into college to study computer science. Is this what you wanted to do? Actually no. Not what you wanted to do. No. All right. Let me take a wild guess. Your parents wanted you to study computer science or study something pertaining to technology so you can get a good job? Actually we have a free will at home. So it's basically you have to just study. You get a degree, you get a good job basically. That's what your parents wanted for you. So you go into school to study computer science, you learn a little bit of coding here and there. Yeah. Do you still code by the way? Yes. I'm doing too because it's a side hustle. There's a project I'm working on. Some tech I want to build for cars. All right. Yeah. Some tech you want to build for cars. Yeah. All right. So are you planning to fuse that technology with the art that you're doing by the way? Yeah, sure thing. Yeah. Sure thing. How is this going for you in there? What is the plan? So far recently I was studying the JUMIA platform, how they work with the different suppliers to meet customer demands. So I was just thinking about the similar thing with artworks. With artworks. Yeah, but. So we managed to see a platform for a marketplace for art. Yeah, sure thing. All right. And bidding. And we managed to see artwork going for as high as a million dollars like we see in the US and Europe. Yeah. All right. So let's focus on it. What's your style of art? Actually, I just go with the creativity, you know, maybe a good example is this table. Just seeing it and I was, an idea has just popped. I probably can do something with this. With this table. All right. So when you talk about this table, are you talking in terms of painting something or just making it look chic and arty? Arty. The whole thing is, wow, when you look at something, of course it's a table, but you want to be like, wow. All right. So you get inspired by the world, so I can tell, by your environment. And that's how we get pieces like this. So this is a painting and that's a string art. That is the great legend, Mr. Bob himself. Are you a fan of Ricky? No, my brother is. Your brother is. So this is something you did for your brother as a result of hanging out with your brother so much. All right. So let's talk about this particular painting. What went into this right here? Let's start with the concept of having a couple in black, a silhouette of a couple, an umbrella. The umbrella is not really covering the heads. The umbrella covering the heads are like, like vertically, it's covering the heads on the side. Yeah. So what is happening here? The whole idea was trying to create a romantic, you know, something romantic. Most paintings, you know, they tend to be about, you know, basically what I was trying to do is express an emotion. Express an emotion. Yeah. And this is an emotion that everybody goes through. Yeah. Including yourself. Yeah. All right. Like the texture around here, I feel like even a blind person can touch this piece and just get a feel of it. What kind of material did you use around this? The material, I use a glue gun to create that effect and then paint it, you know, from the darker side, you know, getting the inside, you can see the lighting. So it's basically an emotion, you know, amongst all the crazy stuff going on in the world, there's always a happy place. Yeah, there is. So there's darkness, then it gets lighter, then it gets lighter, and then this is a happy place. A happy place is, you know, it's human to human. When we get to that level, me and you without all the titles or the crazy things going on. That's the happy place. No, that's a happy place. But this represents all the crazy things that are going on in the world. Using a glue gun to come up with the darkness and everything else, is this a textbook way of doing things? Have you seen somebody do this before? I'm a big fan of DIYs, because I've also made some furniture and some other things, so I don't limit my creativity to just canvas. I try to, you know, maybe I might surprise you one day, I come up with an old school vintage classica, you know, built from scratch and all that, so I don't tend to limit myself to something. You don't limit yourself to painting also, you see. Your art is limitless. So maybe if we come to an exhibition by Bush, there might be paintings on this side, we might be having furniture on this side, we might be having string art on this side. Lump sheets. Lump sheets and things like that. Alright, so how many hours a day for you? It's eight to five job. It's an eight to five job. It's an eight to five job. Yeah, that's how I treat it. But you turn the hobby to a job. Yeah. Y254 channel on Twitter, Y254 underscore channel on Instagram, and Y254 on Facebook, George Bush is in the building, the founder, CEO and founder of Bush Concepts. Yeah. Alright, so I'm interested in the string art. This, you use nails, strings, and wood, basically. Yeah. Alright, how do you get to convert the idea of a face or the impression of a face in your head to nails, to nailing first and combining the strings so that I can see it and say this is Bob Marley, right? What I do is my background, my IT background helps me to, maybe I can take a photo of you and then you posterize it. Yeah. There are many apps that can give you that effect. And then for those who don't know how to draw or sketch, you know, you can just print it and then you can do the nails, outline, and then you can do the strings. So you take a picture, you scale it, and then you know how, you know the dimensions. Exactly. Digitally. Yeah. And then you bring it back on paper. So we can't say that you wasted time in school. It was not a waste of your time. Actually, no. It was not a waste of your time. It wasn't a waste of time. Alright, between that period that you finished school and you started your own art gallery and company and started experimenting with art, what was going on in your life at that particular time? Because so many people go through that face and it's a difficult face. Some of them even end up committing suicide. I think with all this, I'm recovering from a depression and it wasn't easy, you know. Losing friends, you can't pay rent, you can't eat three meals a day. And when you walk out of that door and everyone is like, ah man, how are you doing? I'm good. You're good. But in the house, you're hiding. But I'm hiding. And there's so much pressure coming for moments. Yeah, true. So during this phase, what kept you grounded? What kept you from taking the next step? There's this particular day I was on my balcony, that was last year. And I was just thinking, you know, there's it, you know. The worst thing right now, the best thing right now is me being in a coma and then wake up when at least life has moved on. And all these people don't exist and the pressure is all gone. So I walked out of the door and I was like, God, you know, you own me, right? I was like, God, you own me and today I'm okay if you take me. So I just walked out, you know, just walked out. And that very day things changed, you know. So I just started, you know, I thought he sent me something, next thing he sent me another person came and told me like, oh, you're doing great art, you know. You should sell this. You should be serious with this. You should be. And then I sold my first ring art. Actually it's, the client came from the United States, we never even met. So it was through a friend of friend. And I felt if I sold my first artwork, then the world hasn't seen the best of me yet. So I thought, let me go back to what I'm familiar with. And that's my childhood. I could do art, I could make stuff, I could. So right now, let me live my childhood life, but I get paid for it. So that's how Bush concepts started. So boys will always be your boys. Sure. All right. So, wow, wow, wow. All right. So you never went through therapy. No. It was self therapy. You just had to sit and talk to yourself. Talk to Bush. Yeah, talk to Bush. Criticize Bush. Hate Bush. And then forgive Bush. Yeah. And then move on with Bush. Yeah. We have a piece here on the screen. This is a lion. This is one of the big five. This is one of our biggest exports as a country. And you've given it a different form. A lion is never blue. A lion is never yellow. A lion is never green. A lion has never, ever, ever, ever been white, I think. But you have painted this. You've painted a lion in this way. What inspired this? This is an inspiration that I got from one of the artists. They used to pass. If I got a shop, there's a friend who gave me some space where I could do some IT stuff, you know, fix iPhones and laptops. So before I took artwork seriously. So he passed and told me, like, you should come to our studio. So I just went. I found him doing this similar piece of art. So I thought, okay, I've never painted on canvas. I want to try. And I want to beat him. I want to do it like, you know. You were motivated. That perfect piece. It took me two months to finish this. Right now it's in Kitui County, the county offices. And the inspiration is, you know, the world. All the colors in the world, I tried to squeeze them there. And it's called a pop art. You know, when you look at it, it just pops with colors. Sure. I'm pretty sure the offices of Kitui County, I really fought them because of that piece. So Kenyatta Trust, you've sold another piece to Kenyatta Trust, which is transforming lives. And they've transformed your life as well. How did this come to play? Actually, this was, the Kenyatta Trust was, it's because of my brother. The Kenyatta Trust took him to high school, paid for him. And they're still looking after some many other more kids, because we were victims of post-election violence. So, you know, that economical stability we didn't have. So they took my brother in. It was a victim as well. So he went to the offices and told them, like, you know, my brothers, they've done, you know, my second-born brother, his name is Zafania Abel. We are together in Bush Concepts. We all paint. We all do art. So he went and told them they don't have jobs, you know, and they could use anything around, you know, not necessarily what we've studied for. So I told him instead, take these artworks to them. We don't want to look like we're begging or asking for something, you know. Everyone is. Let's do it differently. Let's sell them art. And yeah. All right. So your brother, it's you and your brother at Bush Concepts. Yeah, Bush Concepts. And there is a third-born, Job Sunday. He's the one who is on, you know, the program. All right. So you are the person who pushes the envelopes. You look like the person who does the pushing of the envelopes. Yeah, of course. As a first-born, you know, it's something you can't run away from, you know. So you just have to. All right. So anytime your brothers tell you, oh, I'm in trouble, you just feel the urge to help as a first-born. I'm not a first-born. So I don't understand. Yeah. You know, when you're a first-born, you're not just a first-born to your siblings, even my best friends, my friends. They know Bush is the tough guy, you know, but yeah. So you have to be, you know, the image. How has this helped you in this corporate side of life? Okay. I can say basically confidence in my product and the future, because I have a feeling it's bigger than what I see right now. And it's bigger than who we are. It's bigger than the Bush concepts. And I just can't tell. All right. Being a victim of post-election violence, like myself, so I try to use my talent and my voice to actually educate people and just let them know that politics can be done in a different way. We can always disagree to agree sometimes, because politics, you are bound to disagree. Yeah, true. You can't have 40 million people agreeing on one thing, but there are different ways of handling things. How are you using your art for the sake of this country, not to go back to a dark age like that? Okay. Right now, as you know, any nation that has the younger generation, you know, there are no jobs, and we are the majority. And now you can imagine right now if, God forbid, if it was to happen again, we'll be the most hit. So at my studio, what I try to do is try to avoid, you know, you come from this tribe, you're this and this, you're this and this. So when we all merge under that roof, we're just artists. It's a tribe of artists. Yeah, we don't care where you come from. You just come. You're people first. Yeah, we're people. And I think that's the best thing to do. Let's be human. Let's be... Let's just forget about all this. What's the painting saying? This is Zody. What is the painting saying? So let the darkness just exist somewhere in the galaxy. Yeah, somewhere else. On Earth, let's just have this. Yeah, let's just have this. That's simple there. Wonderful. What is this on screen right now? This is a mirror. It's a concept I was trying. Yeah, bush concepts. Actually, I didn't tell you. Bush concepts is concepts that come from the bush. It's not bush. So you just come up with something, sticks and stone, and this and this, and you create something. So there's a mirror. And yeah, these pieces on the side, these are wastes. So there's a friend called Dan at the same place we have a studio. He sells mirrors and glasses. So I took the pieces from the trash and did the pieces on the side and then this big mirror here. So it's on my wall, actually, and I've already sold one piece on that very day. So yeah, more is to come. So you can get a mirror custom made for you by Bush Concept. Yeah. All right. So the ones on the sides are wastes. Yeah, they're wastes. Yeah. So recycling is also taking place under Bush Concept. Yeah. Excuse me. So do you cut glasses while at the studio? Dan does it for me because it's a way of creating employment. All right. So you outsource some things. Yeah, you don't have to do everything, but you have to be keen on the costs so that I can be able to sell it because I'm around J-Quad. So students, I can't sell crazy prizes to the students. So I try to do the budgeting and still make Dan a good job. Put some money in Dan's pockets. I love this so much. So the big question is always, how do you market your product? Creating the product is one thing, but getting it to the consumer is always the biggest part of the equation when it comes to business. Yeah. So good thing is on August we have an exhibition. So we try to go to these exhibitions and create. So Jujja artists, we have an exhibition coming this August. So that's one way we use, we invite people to the exhibitions. They get to experience your art. Yeah. In the process they can tell somebody, they can take pictures, post it, in the process they can also buy. Yeah. And they can also get to interact with you as an artist, not just by my painting. And also, of course, the biggest influence is social media and online platform. Yes, we're living in a very beautiful age right now. You can do your business online and you can sell anything online as well. Anywhere. So social media exhibitions are the way for you right now. And what a mouth. What's that? What a mouth. Alright. And doing amazing pieces as well. That is a marketing tool. Alright, please remind them of your social media and now they can find you as we carry on. You can find me on Facebook at Bush Concepts, yeah, so basically pretty much I'm big on Facebook. So Instagram, they are coming soon, basically under the same name, Bush Concepts. Bush Concepts. Yeah. Coming soon. Alright, so as we wrap this up, there are no jobs, we've talked about that for sure. This is Entrepreneurship Tuesday and yes, people complain so much and people get on our Facebook saying they want to do some jobs for us. What can you tell that person who's waiting on a job to put some money in their own pockets and feed themselves? I do watch motivational clips most of the times and Jack Ma said one thing, where you see, you know, there's a deficit, there's something, you know, no one is doing something, whether it's the government, whether it's Y254, that's your opportunity to create a business with them. Instead of complaining about it. Complaining and you know, everyone is on your neck like, you hook me up with the job, hook me up with something. You find that thing, that gap, that thing. Even if it's the government that should be supposed to be doing that thing, you can make money off that thing. You try and sell it, that's what I'm trying. That's what you're trying. Thank you very much, Mr. Bush, for coming through to Y in the morning, we appreciate you so much. So how, what is the location of the gallery? It's in Kiambo County, Georgia, just next to Senate Hotel, yeah, that's a long bigger road. There are some stalls there, you can't miss them. You can't miss them. Yeah, blue and yellow, yeah, so stall number eight, that's why you'll find Bush concepts. That's why you'll find Bush concepts, all right, when is the next exhibition? That is on August, yeah. So I think I'll fill you in on the details. So they follow Bush concepts on Facebook, like the page, follow, follow, follow, and dates will be on Bush concepts. Yeah, and also bring ideas, bring ideas. It's Bush concepts. It's Bush concepts. Yeah. Thank you very much for coming through to Y in the morning. Mr. Bush, keep doing what you're doing, we appreciate you so much. And be sure to follow Bush concepts on Facebook, like the page, and support Kenyan art, and just experience art. So her, this is where we get a question from one of our viewers. And our viewer, her here goes by the name Ishmael. And Ishmael is asking, how do you price pieces of art? Because it doesn't get the concept of how this can cost 100,000 Kenyan shillings, and this can cost 10,000. And sometimes they look more or less the same. Yeah. Okay, one thing is originality, as artists, we try to identify ourselves with our techniques, what you do. So that basically prices something. The work you put into something, like the painting that you're holding, that determines the pricing. And also, who are you selling to? That also determines. How they appreciate the artwork. Because there's someone who'll offer even more. Because of how it makes him or her feel. How it is all about how you feel. And how you see it. How you see it. And how you feel it. How you see it and how you feel it. Thank you very much for that. And the last one here is, what are some of your inspirations when it comes to painters or artists? Da Vinci. Mostly because he used to combine... I can say he wasn't an artist, the painter-painter. But the idea that he... He was an architect. He was an engineer. He was so many things. He's just so many things. Just like you, a computer engineer and an artist. This marks the end of this segment. Thank you very much Bush for coming. We appreciate you so much. Keep doing what you're doing. And sometime in August we'll have an exhibition, my Bush concepts. Yeah. Bush concepts on Facebook. Like the page. Follow the page to get more info. And just support Kenyan Art. And just appreciate Kenyan Art. I go by the name of Barry Moses. Or it's Barry Mone if you're a social media platform. Enjoy. And Alex will be coming up with other interviews. You don't want to miss this. Don't touch that doubt.