By Nancy Dorrans
Every work of art has a story, whether the story of the idea, the artist, the craft, or the story of the work itself and where it was created. Then there is the story told of when and how the work was acquired. This you might say is the story of the beholder. There are so many stories in each work.
Over the years I’ve brought back an eclectic collection of art from my travel adventures, and each has a story to tell…
Menagerie of Eggs
When I was a little girl my great Aunt Mary had a basket of colorful alabaster marble eggs on her coffee table that her father had brought from Italy. I got the idea to collect my own eggs when I first traveled to Italy. My basket is now a menagerie. The first four or five eggs are polished marble from Florence. There’s a hand carved alabaster egg from Egypt and one of Malachite from Zimbabwe. Three small eggs from China, a painted Aboriginal egg from Australia, a wooden egg from the Dominican Republic, and a piece of decorated pottery I found along the Mediterranean coastline. Perhaps it is a relic from the lost city of Atlantis!
Molas from Panama
From Panama I brought home several handmade Molas. Each cloth panel has layers of bright colored fabric sewn together in a reverse appliqué technique. Originally used as part of the traditional women’s clothing of the Guna people, each Mola tells its own story. I used to do needle work and truly appreciate the amount of work that went into these beautiful geometric intricate designs.
From Switzerland came an intricate wooden bowl similar to those used by the dairy farmers to hold cream and cheese. It has no nails or glue. A true wooden craft that now holds non-dairy hair accessories.
Pair of Treasures from Zimbabwe
From Zimbabwe I have many treasures: a batik wall hanging, an intricate zebra pencil sketching, a stone carving of kissing giraffes, several wooden carved animals, and a Marula necklace. The artist claims the Marula seed on the necklace passed through the digestive system of an elephant. Indeed! The intestines of an African bull elephant can achieve an incredible length of up to about 62 feet. The seed was “cleaned” of fibrous fruit in the process and was then mined out of the dung. I wear this story proudly!
Most special from Zimbabwe however is a painting of giraffes done by a young girl in a village near Victoria Falls. While she had no use of her arms and hands, she adapted and created works of art by painting with her feet, bringing pride and support to her family and community.
From Egypt I treasure an intricate painting on papyrus and a silver charm I gave to and have since inherited back from my mother. It is the Egyptian Eye of Horus. The Egyptian Eye is a symbol of protection, royal power, and good health.
Most of this article first appeared in The West End News in August 2018. Sadly the stone statue of kissing giraffes was knocked (by my elbow) off balance and shattered soon after the photo was taken.
Since August of 2019 so much has happened.
The last three years are a bit blurry. During the pandemic I developed a “pandemic passion” for painting and bourbon! Maybe the bourbon is cause for the blur? Hard tellin… For me, painting is meditative. Meditation, painting, and a wee dram now and again helped me through the pandemic.
My pandemic paintings are a series of postcard size works from favorite photos.
My friend Carl saw my collection and commissioned me to paint him something. I needed more than “something” to go by. He said he liked trains and he gave me a postcard of the Narrow Gauge Railroad in Portland.
This is a much larger piece for me. It took quite a while. I added caboose and sunny day. Carl was thrilled.
So, enjoy your art and the stories it tells, whether you received it as a gift, created it yourself or found it at the Elephant’s Walk Shopping and Artist’s Village in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
