A little bit of a change from my Desi works - I present: Afrolicious.
Here I had the pleasure of working with the owner Nancy on brining her vision to life across a 30 ft + wall. The mural was designed to reflect the importance of the role of Women in traditional West African culture (Kenya, Namibia, Uganda, etc.) while incorporating traditional patterns and fabrics.
As this post is going to be a tad longer than most, I'm going to make it stand out by including some of the concept drawings used to finalize the mural.
Panorama of the Mural
As you can see the artwork included tribal elements (the border, the African continent and women cooking) combined with realistic ones, set with a Serengeti/Savannah style backdrop. Real tribal beads and ornaments were used to decorate some of the women - it was important to highlight the importance women play in traditional West African Culture. Cooking, nurturing young, fetching water - the most crucial of necessities fall upon these ladies shoulders, unfortunately the importance of their contributions is often overlooked.
If you look close, you can see faux jewels and beads arranged for the necklace.
The beads are authentic Tribal beads from Kenya.
You can see how Tribal art was used to represent both the African continent and
women cooking in a traditional West African style.
Next let's take a look at the conceptual process that was involved in creating this unique piece. The mural itself was a combination of both design mockups I had provided, fusing elements from each. Below I am going to include the two mockups which were used to construct the final mural. Portions from both A and B, were amalgamated to create the final product at the behest of Nancy ji.
A Clearly shows the main portrait used in the final mural, as well as the woman carrying the water jug.
B Is where we find the elements used for the background, the continent, the border,
and the women cooking
Even though there is quite a bit more (the bathroom hallway) I am going to save that for a separate post. If you're curious to see this in person or try the incredible food, visit Afrolicious in downtown Hamilton, ON.
Until we meet again,