For close to 30 years now, Kenneth Nelson has been taking unwanted pieces of wood and turning them into magnificent sculptures. Some of his pieces grace rooms in various ministries, in particular Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from where they are offered as tokens to visitors to Guyana. He also sells to locals and foreigners. The owner of Kissoon’s Furniture Store was one of Kenneth’s regular buyers.
Kenneth’s first exposure to the art began through some of the big names in sculpting, men like Philip Moore, Desmond Ali, Linden Gemmott and several others. He began as an apprentice, sanding the pieces they carved. These same artists picked up on Kenneth’s potential to become a sculptor and encouraged him.
“From then on, I took to doing my own style and it just kicked off. We would carry our pieces to the Office of the President, the different ministries and they would buy it up,” Kenneth said. “This was when I was alone without a family. After [a while] business started getting slow. Then I had my family and I decided I needed to do more than just sculpting so that’s when I began making jewelry.
