Batik. It's what we did.

Well, the obvious thing to talk about would be Nani and the Batiks we did with him.  I'll definitely touch on that today, but something that I want to talk(type) to you about is how "carefree" people from African Cultures are with their art and creations aesthetically.  

What I mean by this is that I've started to notice that more thought is put into the meaning of their art rather than the look and aesthetic of it.  DO NOT get me wrong, please.  I think that art from Africa is aesthetically pleasing and very enjoyable to look at, but I personally find it really appealing that there's such a rich history and meaning to each piece created.

We talked about the terracotta memorial heads in class and how, while they aren't exact replicas, they are made to define different people.  Things such as scaring or distinctive hairstyles are used to describe certain people and to dedicate the heads in their memory. I enjoy that there's not too much worry or care being put into the memorial heads in making sure they look exactly like the person it's in memory of.  I'm sure, if the creator wanted to they could produce a pretty close replica but that's not the point of the work.  It's created more for memory rather than looks.

Often times, we get too caught up in the details of art and we fall short of the true potential of our creations.  Why does something need to be perfect or an exact replica?  There's beauty in mistakes and "deformities".  Peoples from all the different African Cultures definitely embrace this idea and create for meaning and purpose rather than for perfection.  I just love that.  I find that there are times where I want things to turn out perfectly, too, but I'm working on letting go and enjoying the meaning behind art and the things I create.

Speaking of art not being perfect... The batik I made yesterday and today is definitely not perfect, but I'm ok with it.  I definitely learned a lot about the process and I understand why different African Cultures have such a strong emphasis on this way of creating beautiful fabrics.  I honestly wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.  I found that there are so many different patterns and combinations that could be used, even with the dye.  There were several different shades and styles that can be used.  It just really appealed to me and surprised me that there would be such a variety within our class even though we had a limited number of stamps and dyes.

Going back to art with lots of meaning, and just proving further that there's always a lot of thought and meaning that goes into African Culture, I enjoyed learning about the Adinkra stamps and all of the different meanings they have.  In our session today with Nani when he was asking what stamps we used I thought it was very interesting that even though each stamp had a meaning, the meaning to each individual person would change.  Each stamp spoke to people in different ways.  For example: the stamp that stood for turning the cheek has a positive meaning to some and to others it has a negative meaning.  No meaning is "correct", though.  The beauty is that it's different for everyone!  There's just so much meaning to everything and it's very exciting and interesting for me to see how everything is interpreted. 

I think having Nani(along with the discussions we're having in class) here to teach us batiking has really helped me to understand the rich meanings each artwork and creation have in African Cultures.  As well as the different meanings for each culture within Africa.  There's just so many levels of meaning and I can't help but be excited about it!