My inspiration comes from many influences of past and contemporary experiences. An artist such as Robert Rauschenberg challenged the status qou of his time with his rich mixtures of media, icons and textures. Definitely one of my contemporaries is Stevon, a fascinating local artist, who bridges the concepts of shattered glass and the struggle of African Liberation into startling collages. I am also interested in taking mundane observations from life and turning them into guerrilla art. For example, take the concept of an "eyeprint", I transformed it, a thought, into "Leave your eye print here." It becomes something magical and mesmerizing when its placed strategically in a phone booth or on a public mirror. I create in the reflection of life's simple and beautiful moments such as an infant acquainting herself with her hands. Then there are times when I create a reflection that reveals life's complexity and its ugliness, moments such as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. I find the medium of photomontage on wood very comfortable and soothing to my spirit. My mother was a photographer and my father a carpenter, though now he is deceased. This medium allows me the fluidness to manifest the crafts I have been exposed to all my life. It enables me to push the boundaries of traditional photography into the arena of fine art. Once the spirit of the wood with its knots and grains merges with the human image, it takes on a life of its own and I become an Alchemist.

Naturally Yours, Keba Konte

"Calm Before the Storm" 1998 17''x 24'' Photomontage on Wood