Eye of the Creator....William Mwazi

Artist William Mwazi is a man of multiple worlds. Growing up William Mwazi had to contend with his bi-ethnic background, a child of mixed ancestry African-American and Asian, and whenever he showed interest in stating his background he felt confusion from others. His art on the other hand mixes in figures of historical and contemporary of both African and Asian backgrounds with comic book charcaters, images of himself. Tying together all the strands of his being, that elude others at times, into a visual representation of a man who is comfortable with who he is and wants to share his influences with the world around him. Currently he's residing in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province in China. I found his art online and was immediately blown away by the parring of characters and real life personas of his "A Hero Among Us series" and had to contact him, my interview with him is as follows.


Kaos Blac: You have been garnering some press with your participation in one of the "pop-up" galleries in the city, can you discuss how you came upon the opportunity to show your work in the space.

- "John Milledge", Dead Nubian's


- "Bessie Coleman", Dead Nubian Series

William Mwazi: I got involved with an organization that an acquaintance of mine is apart of that helped artist get cheap spaces to work out of as artist studios. The organization is called Chashama. So when I contacted them they I just happen to be looking for artist for their new spaces in Queens. I lucked out usually most people would have to wait to get a space where as for me I just moved right on in.


Kaos Blac: How do you feel that about your work being in the "pop-up" gallery and the reporting of the galleries. To me most of the pieces on the galleries have been fluff pieces and fodder in light of the art that's there.



William Mwazi: I felt that the press that we the artist in the space got was minimal. It really was not about the artist per say as to publicize the organizations that that helped the artist. I mean all of us where hungry to get some public acknowledgment! So we got pretty up tight about getting little recognition as individual artist. But I was happy to get some publicity of me and my work! I got a few good paying commissions from my televised appearance, so to say that if I didn't get the chance to have a studio space my work would have never gotten any of the press; little coverage that it was, but it was something...


Kaos Blac: I'm fascinated by your use of contemporary Afro-American figures in your work and their pairing with comic book characterizations. How did these pairing come up as a concept for your art-work?


- Mr. Terrific and Daughter, A Hero Among Us Series 1
2008
19 3/4inX25 3/4in
Charcoal on paper


- Oprah: Captain-Marvel, A Hero Among Us: Series 2
2009
19 3/4inX25 3/4in
Charcoal on paper

William Mwazi: I was and am so excited to work on my hero series. I compare what I do to what the master artist have done in the past. Instead of portraits of kings, queens, and nobleman of the past here I used our contemporary public figures that I immortalize. I'm a product of pop-art and that's where my influences come from I'm a big comic geek to boot, so I loosely based my A Heroes Among Us series II off of my A Heroes Among Us series I where it was the parents who where the heroes to the children with series II it was public and cultural figures as our heroes. It started when President Barack Obama winning the presidential race and I needed to do an illustration for the Studio of Harlem's magazine Studio. So the first image for A Heroes Among Us II was the one I had done of Barack Obama for there Studio mag. That was based on different drawing that I added as a bonus work for my Heroes among Us series I. That I exhibited at the Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn. The 2nd drawing of President Barack Obama for A Heroes Among Us series II and Studio mag had a different design that worked better with the magazines lay out.


- Captain America: Barack Obama (The Future of Leadership), A Hero Among Us: Series 2
2009
19 3/4inX25 3/4in
Charcoal on paper

Kaos Blac: So will you continue to make any more portraits in this series?

William Mwazi: Yeah I can and will go back and work on more of these images in the heroes sires 1 and 2. There are a lot of other unsung hero's that need to be acknowledge!!!

Kaos Blac: How did (do) you start to create your pieces? To me, the theme of juxtaposition of culture is a prevalent aspect of your work and appears often. Being of mixed ethnicity yourself do you feel that it informed what you do as an artist?


- William Mwazi (l) with the image of Tiger Woods in the background, both are of mixed African-American and Asian heritage.


-William Mwazi as Mao Zedong


- William Mwazi as Xuanzang


- William Mwazi as Yao Ming

William Mwazi: It started in New York actually before I even thought about coming here to China. Now that I think about it seems more fitting that I did finish my portraits here. But anyway back to how it started I did some smaller drawing of me as Mao, Bruce lee, and Laozi and they where hanging in my studio space just for show not really a part of my body of work at the time when one of my studio-mates Hidemi Takagi came in and asked me about them. That's when I got to tell her about my cultural background and that my drawings where a visual exploration in to knowing more about my grandfathers culture in China. So to say she was my first cheerleader in to moving forward into farther exploring my concept. So I thank her and other Asian artist and patrons who came and gave me the positive encouragement that I needed to follow my project through. So now I'm here in mainland China. I've been hanging out with my family in Guangzhou (formally know as Canton) when I got the opportunity to do an artist residency in Sichuan province in its capital city of Chengdu. After I was done with the artist residency I signed up to work as an oral English teacher at Sichuan University which I’ll start work next week. When I’m finish with the school year I would like to head to Beijing to do an art residency for a little bit then come back down to Guangzhou to see my family again and there I'll like to study Chinese and continue my art work. That's the plan anyway but I'll see.... Plans tend to change, Ha Ha. :)

Kaos Blac: What is your favorite comic book character?


- From the Super Self-Image Series, Green Lantern. William self imposes his facial likeness onto action figures. The statement on series is as follows, "With my illustrations of heroic images, I would like to inspire strength and courage in the African-American community, as well as the larger population. I believe that childrenalready have the desire to be larger than themselves (figuratively and literally), and that my work will inspire them to go beyond their limits and dream to be more. To exicte!!!

William Mwazi: My Favorite comic Character is The Justice League animated series Green Lantern - John Stewart I loved his personality! In book form his like most of the black fictional characters have no strong personality traits or flaws. They’re pretty bland with the exception of the Blade character! He always Rocked! Ha Ha. I guess other writers didn’t want to seem racist or stereotyping black characters or they just had them written safe with no flavor, but the Black Panther Books kicked ass under the writing of Reginald Hudlin the first and only black writer of the this main title. I felt a connection with the character was it because the writer happen to be black I don't know??? But the Character came alive for me!


- Green Lantern and Sons, A Hero Among Us Series 1
2008
19 3/4inX25 3/4in
Charcoal on paper


- Black Panther and Son, A Hero Among Us Series 1
2008
19 3/4" X 25 3/4"
Charcoal on paper

Kaos Blac: You know John Stuart really gets no love. Hal gets to die come back, get a yellow ring, a blue ring, a red ring, and orange ring, a white ring, hell all the other earth lanterns get some kind of shake up to their core values and powers. Black characters never really get to move beyond being the fact that they are created and its sad. I do however like what Reginald Hudlin has done to Black Panther. he's gone into the character and made them, well characters. You get a sense that they are living and breathing in their world. I really like the fact that the current Black Panther is a female. There really isn't enough strong Black female characters that can stand on their own and sustain a titular comic book, although the run was short but she is coming back. Continuing on with what I started talking about with John Stuart Black comic book characters in that they are just bland. They never really have any kind of in-depth personality traits and its a shame. My question to you is if you were ever to be approached to do a comic by any of the big boys', ie Marvel or DC, to work on any of their titles or even make your own who, out side of John Stuart Green Lantern would you work on as artist, pending they had a good writer so you could focus on your art.

William Mwazi: If I were ever to be approached to do a comic by any of the big boys', ie Marvel or DC, to work on any of their titles it would be Cloak from Cloak and Dagger. I always like the idea to do some awesome pen ink brush work on that character. But they're stories should be mush adventurous than being street crime fighters it lessened their potential where I thought the books should have gone more into a Hell-boyish or it's spin off The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense (the B.P.R.D. or BPRD) direction that would have been hot!!!!!! but that's just me, what do I know?!

I do hope he gets a chance to work his magic on a comic or graphic novel some time soon. In the meantime his paintings, sketches, and drawings will have to suffice. You can find more of his work at William Mwazi. Also you can see his work in person if your in Brooklyn, NY at MoCADA as a part of the "Aint I A Woman" exhibition.