CONTENTS
Page One:
- Maria Luisa Grimani: Collages
Page Two:
- Songda
- FICHOU
Page Three:
- John-Henry Marshall's New Show On Wood
- Rich Chin: His Father Remembered
- Romantic Pieces from the Past
|
Dans les bananerais (In the banana
plantations) |
Graphic artist, Songda Ouedraogo of Burkina Faso has been residing
in Montpellier, France since June of 2002. By way of explanation for
the move, he says "My wife is French, and after she lived 7 years
with me in Burkina Faso, I decided to live with her some years in her
country."
Born in 1964, Songda decided definitively by the age of 19 (after
completing his studies in accounting) to make a career in art and to
specialize in the pyrographic technique.
In recent years Songda has been exhibiting in Burkina Faso, Cote
d'Ivoire, and France. He won the Prize for Creativity at the 2000
Biennial of Naive Art in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, and in 2002, he won a
journalism prize for one of his graphic designs in an on-line monthly
magazine.
Pyrographic painter and graphic designer, the multitalented Songda also
writes music and does animation for African children's stories.
|
Legumes Verts (Green Vegetables) |
Songda works in pyroengraving on wood, on gourds, and on leather
(goatskin) and has begun in the last year to introduce color into his
pyro works (acrylic paint on the wood ones and India ink on the leather
pieces).
Songda's pyrographic technique--most notably on his first piece in wood
at the top entitled In the banana plantations--is outstanding in
its
originality. Combined with his remarkable gift for graphic design,
his pyrography offers a richness and warmth typical of this art form
while adding the extraordinary effect of an additional dimension,
resembling relief carving.
His graphic design style--in his press illustrations as well as his
pyrographic works on wood and leather--shows us "narrative
scenes [of West African life], some openly dream-like . . . full of
humor, tenderness, jubilation and based on hope, for the sensitization
of African people is the driving force behind his work."
|
Comme des roseaux (Like the reeds) |
Songda had been working as an illustrator for a monthly on-line West
African newsletter called Le
Marabout (unfortunately now defunct) that was published out of
Burkina Faso's capital of Ouagadougou. By clicking on that link, you
can see examples of his work in the slanted headline.
It was because of one of his works done for Le
Marabout that in October
2002, Songda won a journalism prize in illustration awarded in
francophone Africa by Radio France International and Reporters Without
Borders (acronym RSF, from the French) for his graphic design art work
of a mass grave discovered at Yopougon in the neighboring country of
Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Songda's prize winning piece can be
viewed by clicking on Hats
Off to Songda Ouedraogo, a Courrier International article
announcing his prize. An RSF article (in English) entitled Democracy
Flourishes in Environment of Press Freedom tells the story behind
that journalism award.
View more pieces of Songda's wondrous work in the Songda Ouedraogo
Salon in the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art.
Although his career was well established in West Africa, the move to
Europe has not been detrimental to Songda's art career in the least. In
the short time since his arrival in France, he has already had a one-man
show in Montpellier as well as two group ones. And already more are
planned for 2003.
|
Sagesse Inaccessible (Inaccessible
Wisdom) |
FICHOU is the nom d'artiste of Gilles Fichou of
France, whose imaginative works seen here and in the E-Museum of
Pyrographic Art are paintings set in pyroengraved wood frames.
"I was always attracted to pyroengraving," FICHOU says,
"by the fire, by the surprising result you can obtain on a piece of
wood with the help of a burning iron, by the magical line that you can
accomplish on a white sheet with a piece of charcoal (the inspiration
for my black on white lines in my paintings).
That must come from our distant ancestors populating prehistory,
fascinated by fire! "
|
Nyctiméné |
FICHOU's paintings and pyroengraved frames have evolved into an integrated piece in which the frame not only enhances the painting as a complementary decorative art piece as in the case of the first owl above (Sagesse Inaccessible) but actually becomes an extension of the art work itself while simultaneously framing it, as can be observed in the second owl (Nyctiméné immediately above) as well as in the two pieces that follow.
|
Ananni |
"My work," FICHOU explains, "is inspired very particularly, even if it is not readily apparent, by the works of the Aborigines of Australia--above all by the utilization of the point and the line--and in general by the art termed 'primitive' found in tattooing and scarification."
"My obsession," FICHOU continues, "was to utilize
pyroengraving with painting, in combination. Easier said than done!
The easy part was to use the pyroengraving around the wood frame;
however, I wanted the wood frame to become an integral part of the work,
which is why you see the continuity of the trailing dots and lines
passing from the painting to the pyroengraving, and passing from the
center to the edges of the canvas."
"For the technique itself, I use and abuse dots produced by means
of a heated pointy tip, and I also use heated tips that are simple
geometric forms, such as circles. Squares, triangles, and rectangles
are not left out either. It is, contrary to how it might appear, pretty
rough and
tough work!"
|
Deux (Two) |
"As far as my painting goes," FICHOU says, "For the time
being, my work revolves around the faces (sometimes strange or tormented
faces) of women or men. These faces are drawn against a central
background that for me recalls the piece of bark that the Australian
Aborigine utilizes. The faces are sometimes tattooed."
View more of Fichou's outstanding works, including some in other media,
at the FICHOU
page on the Gaujonne website and in the FICHOU Salon
in the E-Museum of Pyrographic Art.
|
Click here to go back to page one
2003, Kathleen M. Garvey Menéndez, all rights reserved.
