Kai Njeri X Guillermo Flores Pacheco: Creative Response: Meaning

A collaborative creative response to the Meaning pathway.

Meet Kai Njeri…

Kai is many things all at once – a grower, gardener, designer, teacher, poet, healer, doula, campaigner and facilitator. In her own words, she is a “regenerative systems thinker and designer”. As far as we can tell, she is a force of Nature! Based in Tanga, Tanzania, Kai is tirelessly bettering lives through improved Nature connection, food sovereignty, sexual and reproductive health, and by tackling gender issues. But at the heart of all her work is Nature, as a source of physical and mental health, but also as a teacher, whose principles and systems can inspire the way we organise, relate to each other, and live our lives.

Meet Guillermo Flores Pacheco…

Guillermo Flores Pacheco is a Mexican designer and illustrator specialised in advertising illustration, retouching, post production and digital collage. He has collaborated with companies around the world serving as a creative and art director in multiple projects, developing illustration, brand identity, strategy, planning and execution.

Guillermo reflects on his creative practice

What inspired you to become an artist?

“I come from a family of musicians that were very popular in Mexico during the 70s and 80s, so ever since I was little I was involved in the creative world. After studying graphic design at university I worked in various creative agencies and with time I started to create illustrations for magazine articles. Eventually I started to collaborate with brands around the globe, creating illustrations for them. From a young age I understood that all images have a story to tell, behind every photograph, artwork, etc… There is a story and context that is key for the piece of art, beyond the world of music, I discovered that with illustration there was a different way to express and share a message.”

What would you like people to take away from your art?

“I really like that whenever someone looks at my work they find a ‘new’ detail everytime they look at it again. It shows that they really observed it. I like to think that we can take that approach to everyday life, noticing details that we take for granted, rediscovering elements that are there and for some reason we just glance over them. It’s a process I have experienced throughout my life and definitely something I would like to share and spread with everybody.”

We’re delighted to have Kai and Guillermo respond creatively to the Nature connection pathway of Meaning. Words woven by Kai combine with a visual realisation by Guillermo, to result in a poetic journey into a magical world of meaning. Enjoy delving into this collaborative vision…

“I struggle with the word ‘Nature’ as used to mean ‘outdoors’/places still wild or less influenced by human activity. I struggle with this meaning because it has grown to separate the outside from the inside, the human from everything else. But, we are Nature. I believe that the moment we embody this awareness, this truth, this meaning of Nature, our place in the ecosystems we occupy will cohere with the other parts that make up the sum of us. Nature is our Nature. Nature is the meaning.” ~ Kai Njeri

“Nature is an endless source of inspiration, it is definitely something that fascinates me and encourages me to continue creating. Ever since I was a child, I have discovered that Nature has so much to say, in such a creative and beautiful way, that I could not imagine my profession without it.” ~ Guillermo Flores Pacheco

Thank you Kai and Guillermo for sharing this stunning work and words. You inspire us to reflect on our own connection to Nature, and the deeper meaning that can be found in that connection.

.see those,
.they give the sweetest
.remember, I told you
.the monkeys planted those
.standing where trunk meets earth
.eyes travel, a slow, curious scan
.over this monkey-do mwembe skin
.it is a long way up and
.just as these eyes imagine themselves triumphant,
.the trunk splits
.one way, two
.five ways, ten
.more ways than sight can just then.
.soon there will be more mangoes than
.mothers can wash off children’s smiles
.clothes and stories
.trudging farther and farther up,
.a tropical revolt against gravity’s threat to
.meet my head with the weight of a hundred greenly firm mangoes,
.this majesty lets me into the understory
.of her elastic fro
.its bounce enhanced by a tired ocean breeze
.peeling back some of those gorgeous arrowhead leaves,
.Ah!
.the thrumming microcosm!
.a bird’s nests, three
.ant-reclaimed spider’s web, six
.more homes than you can count in twelve fruit picks
.soon, shortly after afternoon winds carry these footsteps up,
.there will be more elderly chatter than
.these roots can anchor
.or branches monkey can swing off of
.standing there,
.where monkeyed mango seeds fell,
.where new stories tumble out of old lips,
.and old peels collect under young toes,
.where birds raid ant’s nests
.and fungi fizzes neath mothers’ soapy hollers
.one really catches the sweet exhale

.of life lifing its lifest!

Explore Kai’s work and follow along below…

Explore Guillermo’s work and follow along below…

Deepen your own connection to Nature — dive into the Meaning pathway…