There is an underlying message and double image in this painting.. the texture is the spiral of the fibonacci code / sequence. This spiral is found throughout nature and can simply be explained as the continuous incremental growth of pattern sequencing as found in Nature. For example - petals on a flower or the spiral on a shell.
This signifies for me the abundance found in the natural world. I have used crushed egg shells embedded in the spiral to depict the birth of life and the beginning of this journey of this spiral. The man sailing on the river is an extrapolation of this journey of life - gazing also into the infinite beauty as well as possibilities illustrated in the enigmatic forest.
 | Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, renowned Zulu elder, Shaman and author is a master storyteller who has traveled to more than twenty countries sharing his wisdom. His openness came at a high price - great personal loss; his son was brutally murdered by those who did not wish him to share his knowledge with the world. Within South Africa's Kruger National Park lies a private game reserve called Timbavati. This special place is mythical in reputation. White lions are born in Timbavati. Credo Mutwa describes a long story about a chieftainess called Numbi. Many generations ago, she and her people saw a burning white light like a star fall out of the sky right where Timbavati is today. The story is, that it was not a star; it was a shining ball of metal, brighter than the Sun and after that star fell strange things started happening there. Cattle with two heads were born repeatedly. |
This girl was born in Dakar and her parents got divorced. Her father took her, along with her younger sister and brother to the village where he was brought up, 450km from Dakar. The mother never knew what happened to the children. The father never sent anything to the village for the children and the grandmother brought the children up. She had to sell her own clothes to pay for food for the children. The two girls never went to school. At the age of 16 this girl was working as a bond, (unpaid work in return for food and lodging) for a worker and his wife in a Hotel in the reserve Niokolo Koba. In 2004 a white man came to work there. In January 2006 the two were married. On the day of the marriage she cried because her mother was not present and she did not know where her mother was. The girl had never been outside the village but after the marriage she went to the nearest town, Tambacounda for the first time. A little while after she visited Dakar where she found her mother and the family and later still, visited England. The man was well educated and is well traveled, but the girl has taught him so much about social family life, respect and self respect that he had never seen before. After 4 years they are more in love than before. Story recited by Colvin Tooke - 2010 | Ndeye Coumba  |
“Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you” .... Maori Proverb
