polamaneli

[polamaneli]

I love your work. You are inspiring

MY HEART, IT IS FULL!! THANK YOUUUU!! hahaha

[polamaneli]

i’m terrible at retaining information. for some reason my mind finds it really hard to store information, regardless of how important it is. it would be one thing if it were only a matter of forgetting facts, dates, and names, but it even extends to vocabulary, the basic tenets of the written & verbal languages - but most frustratingly - visual language as well. rhythm, tone, line, balance, etc - these means of production never feel like they’re mine to claim, so my only means of access to them are through reading. in the sense that each finished page feels like the toll you pay in order to get closer to being able to express yourself in the way that feels the most honest to you. or at least that’s how i sometimes like to think of it. so yeah, here was my reading list for the week.

[polamaneli]

some of my favourite sketches from the past couple of weeks. after more than 3 years of just drawing on loose pieces of paper, it’s actually kinda great having a ‘home’ for my ideas and studies again. sketchbooks can be fun as long as you don’t start being too precious about them (none of us were really ever the same after the first time saw those james jean sketchbooks)

[polamaneli]

[polamaneli]

[polamaneli]

[polamaneli]

[polamaneli]

“Intonga Yam Ngumsimelelo Wam”

Mam’ uMiriam

[polamaneli]

the rejected first draft

[polamaneli]

The designs we produced were given to us thousands of years before white judges came to this country to tell us we never really existed... When we paint - whether it is on our bodies for ceremony or on bark or canvas for the market - we are not just painting for fun or profit. We are painting as we have always done to demonstrate our continuing link with our country and the rights and responsibilities we have to it. Furthermore, we paint to show the rest of the world that we own this country, and that the land owns us. Our painting is a political act.

 'How Aborigines invented the idea of contemporary art' (2011), Ed. Ian McLean

[polamaneli]

Bra Hugh

[polamaneli]

2/3

[polamaneli]

process

[polamaneli]

composition and rough lines done. next: final line work. and then... the background

[polamaneli]

sketches of hugh masekela for a thing

ig @polamaneli

[polamaneli]

been chipping away at something special.