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AMASHIWI

"Culture is the heritage of us all. some may be more interested than others in the treasures of the past, but no one can fail to take a pride in his country's participation in the story of mankind, as represented in carvings, sculpture, music, paintings and the other arts. And there is a personal commitment to this, for no man can really say he is alone: we are all joined through our identity, with the cultures which are part of the mainstream of life"
- Simon Kapwepwe, Zambian Independence Freedom Fighter

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm" - Winston Churchill

"Try to be the rainbow in someone else's cloud" - Maya Angelou

"Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinion drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition" - Steve Jobs








Friday, 3 January 2014

Soul Food Friday: A Brief Ethiopian Art Experience

On my way to Ghana, I had an overnight stay in Addis Ababa, as I flew by Ethiopian Airlines.  I have always wanted to go to Ethiopia and was sad that I could only get a snapshot of the city in the dark, and at an ungodly hour of the morning on the way back to the airport to continue on to Accra.

However, the hotel I was put up in for the night had a great range of paintings on display.  I happened to be installed on the top floor, and as I walked down the flights of stairs to the dining room I was able to discover all this great art.  I am glad I decided not to be lazy and take the lift.  Here are the paintings (click on each picture to enlargen):

These paintings look like they have been drawn in pencil rather than painted with a brush.  I have never seen anything like it before, I had to stare at them for a while to understand what technique and medium was used to create these beautiful scenes.




I like the white washed background in these in order to make the vibrant colours pop.  This style is very common all over East Africa I have found.  




This was the only abstract painting I found.  It really jumped out at me and I am still trying to figure out what it is saying.


These are in a very classic European style.



This style was my favourite. It feels very ancient, like something you would find in an old temple, castle, fort or an ornament like a vase or something fashioned out of wood (like a wardrobe) or stone.  There is a visceral, ethereal, feminine  warmth and strength in beauty that I felt looking at these ones.




If you liked this check out other posts in the Art and Zarty Farty tags.



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