Note from the Artist: Living Differently is an artwork about what it’s like to live in a culture where you stick out like a sore thumb. Everyone looks at you like something that doesn’t fit into this narrative. I frequently have people who ask, “where are you from?” When I say Kenya, everyone has this shocked face or are taken aback for a second. Whether the question is asked in Kenya or if it’s asked outside of Kenya, the reaction is the same. Yes, I don’t necessarily fit into a fixed narrative, but that’s okay. I love my homeland, and I am completely fine with living differently than the narrative.
Acacia Haspels is an artist who was born to missionary parents in Kenya. In her younger years, she lived in Northern Kenya near the town of Lokichogio, which is near the then Sudanese border (current South Sudanese border). However, she spent the majority of her youth in Nairobi while attending boarding school at Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe. After high school, she moved to Sterling, Kansas, where she studied art, education, and sports management at Sterling College. Now she uses those degrees to teach art in Buhler, Kansas, with hopes to coach soccer in the future. At the same time, she creates intricate, surrealistic artworks packed full of symbolism and hidden meanings. This includes artworks depicting what life is like as a TCK/MK.
