Kalifa Kourouma Drawing

I’m an artist, musician, and writer, and I get a lot of my inspiration from my adventures traveling to interesting places. I’m passionate about anthropology, which is to say, I want to understand the human experience and this thing that we call culture. My explorations into the diverse cultures of the world have inspired me to make artwork and music about the people and places I have seen. I’ve also written and illustrated a book about my time living in West Africa, where I studied traditional music styles over the past decade and a half. At my core, I’m an artist, and have been ever since I picked up a pencil and started drawing at age five. That started a life-long journey that has led me down some unique paths in life. There have been some detours off the path — or perhaps those side roads were really part of it. In any case, art has always been there in some form. I’m rediscovering it again, and committing to making it a full-time endeavor.