SELF PORTRAIT: LIFE SIZE

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Self Portrait - Life Size
Date Made: 2006
Material: Female Mpingo (Ebony) Wood
Place: Bagamoyo (Tanzania)
Size: (132 x 27) cm
Price: Private Collection

Idea & Description:
In realistic art, an artist is supposed to make art just as he or she sees it not as one knows it. Because as an artist myself, I cannot make myself as I know but can only make myself as I see either in portrait or picture. And that was why I had someone else to make my face in clay before carving. Eventually after the clay portrayal, I would make a cement casting before I actually carve in wood.

Then, I would make a miniature trial but the life size as a practise is just to see if I can actually create a direct exactness.

SELF PORTRAIT: MINIATURE

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Self Portrait--Miniature
Date Made: 2005
Material: Mpingo (Male Ebony Wood)
Place: Bagamoyo (Tanzania)
Size: Length 22 cm. & Height 33 cm.
Price: Private Collection

Idea & Description:
First and foremost I love myself. As an artist, making my self-portrait was one of my biggest dreams as well as to find out if I have got what I went to the art school for. Because I learnt realistic arts, I thought it’s a good idea to challenge myself to make my own self-carving.

MAMA NA MTOTO

Name Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Mama Na Mtoto (‘mother and baby’)
Date Made: 2000
Material: Female Mkuruti Wood
Place: Bagamoyo (Tanzania)
Size: Length 9 cm. & Height 11.2 cm.
Price: Private Collection

Idea & Description:
As a woman and mother to be, I always think that children deserve the close attention of both parents, especially that of the mothers! That is why I put a symbol of the breast because that is the first centre of attention for the baby.

SNAKE GIRL

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: A Snake Girl
Date Made: 2007
Material: Female Mtondoro Wood
Place: Bagamoyo (Tanzania)
Size: (57 x 18.5 x 23) cm
Price: Private Collection

Idea & DescriptionIt’s discovered that women are most beautiful people in the universe, but when someone provokes them they become more than a poisonous SNAKE.

COLOR BLIND

NAME OF ARTIST: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Color blind
Date Made: 2007
Material: Female Mkuruti Wood
Place: Bagamoyo (Tanzania)
Size: (58 x 18) cm
Price: TSHs. 1,000,000

Idea & Description

I was trying to see what would come out of this two-colour piece of wood. Most of the sculptors normally use the inside layer. Women are people of colours and this tree represents their test for colour.

ENVIOUS MONKEY

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Envious Monkey
Date Made: 2008
Material: Female Mpingo Wood (Ebony)
Place: Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
Size: (52 x 18 x 20) cm
Price: Private Collection

Idea & Description

There was this funny monkey, which used to love only male human beings and hate women at the Bagamoyo Sculpture School. We used to call it “Jealous Monkey”.

Whenever it saw female students chatting with male students it used to be very violent. It became even more problematic since our school had more male students than female ones. This made me believe that animals have the same feelings as human beings.

MUSICAL SPIRIT

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Musical Spirit
Date Made: 2005
Material: Female Mkuruti Wood
Place: Bagamoyo (Tanzania)
Size: (55 x 17 x 14) cm
Price: Private Collection

Idea & Description
I believe there’s a very big connection between trees and music. In this piece someone is playing a trumpet and the other is enjoying the music, which is being played.

In our early days in this world, especially in Africa, the first music we hear is the lullabies from our mothers who are like trees of which without them we can not live in peace.

SHOULDER

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Shoulder
Date Made: 2005
Material: Male Mpingo (Ebony) Wood
Place: Bagamoyo (Tanzania)
Size: (53 x 18 x 16) cm
Price: US$ 1,000

Idea & Description
People need each other, we need ‘shoulders’ that we can lean on during times of hardship. Like wise, Animals, Birds and Vegetation need each other, they need us, and we need them too so together we make a better world.

DREAM

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Dream
Date Made: 2006
Material: Female Mpingo Wood
Place: Bagamoyo (Tanzania)
Size: (35 x 25 x14) cm
Price: Private Collection

Idea & Description
All that you can see and tell in this piece I saw it too, in that dream, that very night and through this wood I told you of it.

INJUSTICE

SICKNESS

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Sickness
Date Made: 2007
Material: Female Yellow Wood
Place: Cape Town, South Africa
Size: (52 x 25 x 11) cm
Price: Private Collection

Idea & Description
I went ‘down South’ for an International Art Workshop, Thupelo. The day I began this piece I fell terribly ill and had to be admitted. So this piece holds the account of my visit in Cape Town, South Africa.

PASSION

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Passion
Date Made: 2005
Material: Male Mpingo (Ebony) Wood
Place: Bagamoyo (Tanzania)
Size: (46 x 21 x 15) cm
Price: US$ 1000

Idea & Description
You don’t have to be masculine to be a sculptor. It’s all about creativity, passion, and a positive mind. When you end up doing that job that the Most High has destined you to do you will never stop smiling, and one-day morning when your work is all over somebody will look back at what you did and he/she will say, “Passion kept her moving”.

FERTILITY

BEAUTY

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Beauty
Date Made: 2008
Material: Female Mpingo Wood (Ebony)
Place: Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
Size: (72 x 25 x 16) cm
Price: Private Collection

Idea & Description
Giraffe is one of the beautiful and elegant animals that I admire. I like its skin patterns and the way she walks with dignity, the way its neck moves back and forth is outstanding. Its walking is like the woman’s walking, it’s rhythmical.

LISTNER

Artist: MWANDALE MWANYEKWA
Piece Name: Listener
Date Made: 2007
Material: Female Mtondoro Wood
Place: Bagamoyo (Tanzania)
Size: (51 x 20 x 10) cm
Price: Private Collection

Idea & Description
The world would have been a better place only if we were good listeners. When you couldn’t express yourself, in the language of your people (when you were a baby), how did your mother understand you? Yes, she did understand you, because she has always been listening.