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Above: Artist Ammar
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The sound of drums beats and the alluring aroma of
African foods fill the air. Incense and oils also permeate
the atmosphere along with the joyous noise and chatter of
people in the market place, selling and buying goods.
No, the funky art man is not on vacation in Kenya. This
takes place at Milwaukee's own African World Festival.
Following this year's summer of art and festivals, I want
to make sure those of you not hip to this ethnic festival
take notice. It is my opinion that when it comes to
obtaining genuine hand-crafted art you can't beat African
world festival with a stick. As I toured the grounds in
between hours of vending my own portraits, I couldn't help
but notice the old world outdoor bazaar type feel that
sort of rose above the average fest vibe that you get from
the others the city offers. Every thing is all good as you
rub shoulders with old friends new friends and the
occasional politician (a shout out to Gary George).
Maybe It's just me feeling a little ethnic pride or a deep
longing to connect with my ancestral roots by rubbing
elbows with my brothers and sisters from places like
Senegal, Kenya, and Ghana. I'll bet that Milwaukeeans of
Italian, Mexican, Asian, or Germen decent feel that same
subtle vibe of connectivity at their respective festivals.
Going back to the subject of art, what always take my
breath away is the way Africans take wood and sculpt them
into some of the most beautiful creations and statues.
They seem to be both simple and deeply profound at the
same time. Wood has a natural beauty as it is. One of
God's perfect creations, this plant be. To own an African
carving that truly connects to you is much more than cool.
You don't have to be of African descent to understand
this. Early in my life I was surprised by the number of
tribal art collectors I had ran across. Beads, shells and
wood is what brings many to the festival but it is the
food, drumming, dancing, singing, and story telling that
shares equal part in making up African World festival.
I was set up in the cultural village doing on the spot
watercolor portraits across the way was a fellow artist
and friend Ammar. Now Ammar is a local artist whom many
know from his murals around the city most visible being
the historical time line mural on the side of the building
on 27th and Center. The brother has done these
murals all over the country. His most recent mural was
done in L.A..
One of the most difficult forms of art (again, this is my
opinion) is to be an on-the-spot portrait artist. You
literally have to hit a home run each and every time at
bat. This can be stressful to say the least; people do
expect a likeness, and falling short is bad for the wallet
and ego. The law of averages dictates that sooner or later
a bad picture will happen. At the festival, I was on the
right sweating out some decent watercolor portraits;on the
left was Ammar hitting them out the park, doing hat tricks
and three pointers back to back to back. Pastel and
charcoal was his weapon of choice. People, if you ever
catch him at a festival hop in line fast and let him make
you immortal.
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Tosa's
“Hot Times”
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l 09.01.02
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Above: Gary
Kanzlora
Sculptor
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Hot Times in a Cool Village. That's the name
of the festival hosted by the village of Tosa,
with over 23 artists lining the streets of
downtown Wauwautosa. During the summer arts
festival tour of mine I was kickin' it with the
artists up in Tosa and had a good time. Okay, so
not every one was from Tosa but this was the first
street art festival I had ever attended in that
little village. The weather at first didn't
cooperate but by noon it settled down and got
pretty nice out. I was able to meet some
interesting people doing some cool art.
If Drew Carey was a sculptor he would be Gary
Kanziora, but there is nothing funny about the way
he handles a welding tourch. He produces some very
nice metal work and has an excellent grasp of
spatial aesthetics. Now that sounds technical but
what I'm trying to say is, he is the bomb with
some iron.
I was cruising through the village, seeing art
person here, artist there Wow check out the
blonde painting the landscape. Susan Rowbottom is
a painter; that day her specialty was oil on
canvas. She seemed to be having the greatest of
times outdoors, listening to good music, soaking
in the sun painting. Ah, the joy of being an
artist.
The festival sported hand-painted silk by Laura
Livermore, the pottery of Mike Palmquist, jewelry
by Beth Simpson, sculptures by Therese Dawson and
many more.
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This is Funky Art World and I am the Funky Art Man.
Stay strong, stay safe and invest in original art.
Peace.
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