Artist paints his artistic scripture
Chippa Legodimo | Friday June 5, 2015 14:38
Moses foresaw that the people of Israel would sin in their new land and would therefore be exiled. However, he also foresaw the people’s return to their homeland.
This is one of the biblical teachings often used in worship houses to elaborate the importance of unification of all mankind in a world riddled with wars and natural disasters like devastating earthquakes. Local artist Thato Nkawana, a very spiritual man, has his own interpretation of this scripture. Among the artist’s latest works is a large piece called The Gathering of Israel in which the young man shares his artistic impression of the sacred writings.
“The ‘Gathering of Israel’ does not necessarily refer to the Israelites. It is God’s plea to the human race to forgive each other and live together in peace,” Nkawana explains.
In the art piece, a man riding a horse is chasing after a running cow while another man tries to grab it by its leg.
“This is how the world is. We have God’s creatures fearing each other. People are also unable to leave together in peace. Others are desperately trying to unite the world with little success,” he says. But perhaps most impressive in the young artist’s works is a piece called Miss Botswana, a large abstract painting depicting the beauty of our country. In the large piece, the artist combined good imagination and sheer painting skill to produce an engrossing masterpiece.
On both sides there are two zebras both facing up with their big tails down and the brown space in between the two animals, which would otherwise represent the dust filled sky, has a few birds flying freely.
An interesting image of a human face is formed by a combination of all these as the two birds at the bottom also appear like a nose and a mouth while the two at the middle seem to signify well groomed eye lashes.
Right at the bottom of the beautiful face are blue and green images, which the artists explains represent the abundant Okavango Delta waters and lilies that are inhabitant there.
“Illusion abstract makes you see something that is not present. Here are paintings of two zebras and a few birds flying around. “But there is another image that forms when you look at all these as one combination, a face of a beautiful woman.
“I never sat down to paint a human face but it ultimately came out once the painting was done,” Nkawana tells Arts&Culture.
All the images in the painting are significant in defining the beauty of Botswana, he says.