Edmond Nonay
Audio -Visual Artist
Edmond Nonay is an audio-visual artist from Nairobi, Kenya who works with digital mediums such as digital art, sound design & poetry. His inspirations lie in science, spirituality, the human experience, the concept of vulnerability, and abstract and minimalist art forms that invoke thought/wonder, and emotion. Art to him is life itself in its authentic nature. His work captures pieces of his soul & packages them into something that can at least be comprehended in this continuum, all this being a process fuelled mainly by intuition, vulnerability & artistic expression.
He learned and practiced art and design from a pretty young age and chose it as a subject in high school where he learned the basics of art and design. After graduating from high school he embarked on a personal journey of self-expression and identity as an artist. This led him to do his projects which are driven by 'Intention' to achieve what he has inside his mind and heart.
Nonay, who is a massive believer in setting intentions, states that practice without intention is a journey without a purpose and that when the intentions align with the practice, masterpieces are born.
Nonay intentionally and professionally started making art at the beginning of the year 2018 when he challenged himself after earning some income from an art-related job he did (drawing furniture designs). He used the income earned to buy paints and all that he needed to boost his art career. This marked the birth of a project led by the intention to get better at painting and with every piece that he did, he could notice the growth. This was the beginning of the Project on Galaxies.
While working on his visual art, he also developed an interest in music. Only working on his Tecno Spark II smartphone, gifted by his friend Hephzibah as his production equipment, and a pair of earphones as the input and output device, his musical expression was on a new path. He later released about two musical projects, July Vibrations, and Origins. Origins being the recent one, released in 2019 is available on his Soundcloud profile. This was the inception of one of his alter egos, mrnayed.
Later towards the end of the year, 2019, he was chosen to be part of the participants of an exchange program between French artists and Kenyan artists. He was part of the visual arts team working alongside Sarah Ntiro (Ke), Naitiemu Nyanjom(Ke), and the Street Art Sans Frontieres crew (Fr). The newly formed team painted murals across the city of Nairobi with volunteers who ranged from grown-ups to children. The project was successful and that led to the planning of Part: B of the project where the Kenyan Artists were to go to France.
One of Nonay's early achievements was working for one of the biggest festivals in East Africa known as The Kilifi New Year Festival 2020. He got the role of Assistant Decor Manager. While there he got to work hand in hand with Arafa Hamadi who was the Decor Manager to actualize the plan that was to glam up the festival site.
Music forms an integral part of his life drawing influences from genres like Jazz, Classical, Hip hop, Soukous, Lingala, Rhumba, Folk, Soul & RnB. "I grew up listening to the likes of Remmy Ongala & Orchestre Super Matimila, M'Pongo Love, Les Wanyika, Jamhuri jazz, Madillu System, Sam Fan Thomas, Orchestra Super Mazembe, and Taarab" he recalls some of the artists whose musicality really inspired him as he grew up. This influence was a result of his parents' musical interests. His father, a big fan of Soukous, Lingala, and other genres from East and Central Africa alongside his mother who often listened to Catholic choirs and taarab. His upbringing indeed meshed with different cultural elements which he continues to experience and be grateful for in this continuum.
He is currently immersed in sound design, digital art, and graphic design. He recently concluded the first part of the project titled "Sounds Of Freedom", courtesy of the African Fiction Academy. He played the production coordinator role, encompassing most of the nitty-gritty that made the production successful alongside a great team.
Nonay has also ventured into NFTs (non-fungible tokens), with works displaying on platforms such as Foundation, KnownOrigin, and Opensea. He is also part of The Kenyan NFT club working alongside his peers in curating web3-related activities for the Kenyan and East African communities such as onboarding, educating, and providing a platform for them to network, exhibit and interact with technology such as VR and AR.
His aspiration is to delve even deeper into digital media while exploring the technology behind modern expressions, such as Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) as an aid to create immersive experiences and art installations. He has since experimented with Artificial intelligence (AI) to make visual art. As a way to collaborate with AI, he went further to add his sonic input to sort of 'complete the audio-visual experience.
Nonay continues to share his gifts with the world, under his two alter egos, mrnayed the sonic persona and designsbynonay the visual side of himself.
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
2018 - Present
Freelance Graphic Designer + Illustrator + Sound designer
Feb 2021 - Present
Production Coordinator : African Fiction Academy · Audio film prod.
Dec 2019 - Jan 2020
Assistant decor manager : Kilifi New Year Festival · Contract
Nov 2018 - March 2020
Muralist : A Colourful Connection | Switcharoo · Freelance