Friday, April 3, 2009

An African Mermaid -- Image Inspiration


A statue from the Ovimbundu of Angola, circa 1950s-1960s.

This figure makes me want to:

1. Swim. Anywhere. This instant.
2. Take an African sculpting course (in Africa, obvi)
3. Get the song, "Under the Sea," sung by a cartoon lobster, out of my head.

From the NYTimes:

"Mami Wata... is Mother Water, Mother of Fishes, with sources in West and Central Africa and tributaries throughout the African Americas from Bahia to Brooklyn. Usually shown as a half-woman, half-fish, she slips with ease between incompatible elements: water and air, tradition and modernity, this life and the next."

Photo: The Fowler Museum at the University of California Los Angeles

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