African Art

2007-05-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

Homage to Motherhood by Chidi Okoye

Art exhibition * Modern Art * Fine Art

sweet mom

It began with a kiss of love graduated to nine months of mixed feelings which ended in hours of horrible pains and regrets. In the sight of your babe came a sincere smile of success. You didn't know how strong you were Mom. No shock absorber could have been better. You stayed strong like a giant Iroko tree in the midst of turbulent winds of life You are my hero mama. You patiently carried on the tedious job of nursing regardless of burdens and pains, Denied yourself comfort to make me happy. Your baby I will always be. Mummy you are sweet, tender and loving.

You are indeed a blissful bridge to the paradise I know.

Sweet mom.

"Sweet Mom" by Chidi Okoye

"Mama 4" by Chidi Okoye

"In Arms of Mother" by Chidi Okoye

Mother's Dance

Drums and songs of mothers jubilation of the past, present and future. Drums and songs of mothers strengthening strings of communities in face of time. Mother’s dance; Mother’s dance In celebration of life mother’s dance, sang in fullness of spirits to reactivate our loose ends of life. Mother’s dance; Mother’s dance Celebration of womanhood. Mother's dance dynamic and colorful dance of our land. Mother's dance, joyful fountains of the communities. Mother’s dance; Mother’s dance A celebration of Mother Earth and bonding of mothers in the prime of life. Mother’s dance, a glamorous procession of dignity and womanhood like the colorful and ceremonial parade of ostrich in praise of a new season. Mother’s dance, a seasoned dance in squares of life.
Chidi Okoye © 1998

"Moda" by Chidi Okoye

mama Africa

There is no smoke without fire and the child who said that his mother would not sleep should be prepared to be the night guard. It is said that no matter the speed of snail she will never leave her shell behind. Our ancestors said that denial of an offence committed is a second crime. We have betrayed ourselves for joy, to earn sadness and sorrow, solitude and sorry We have lived from abundance to nothing, abandoned the path of old and truth for the highways of ruin to loose direction and self-esteem. We destroyed lives to live in misery; traded on our lives for greed and peanuts to earn your wrath. In tears and guilt we have come from North to the South, East to the West reaching out to you, Mama Africa. Our weaknesses and hospitalities have allowed your foes to rape your sacred places while we stood and watched. We were naïve and stupid to give up our grip for strange cultures and values that defaced you; only to be divided and ruled by monsters without faces. Our shallow minded nature have caused the first to become the last; our sacrifices for atonements have brought us doom because of the filthiness of our hands. Hence, we have come before you, Mama Africa on our sore and shaking knees appeasing you for the healing of the land. We have claimed innocence of the deeds of our ancestors for too long, but the fact is that we cannot inherit only the riches and good wills but debts and guilt as well. We have dented your image and pride to be seen as a dark continent, a place of hell and hunger. We have lived ages wandering like motherless children not knowing whom to turn to; often times denied who we are and where we come from to look cute before others. Most of those who call themselves friends of yours have been nothing but wolves in sheep garments. Hence, we have come before you with all energy left in us to salute you for everything that we have been through and asking for your forgiveness and compassion. We have experienced corruption like a woman in labor experiences pain; left only with scars of evil done to the land. We have repeatedly been led by fruits of evil to come so far behind; foolishly drained your well of wealth to enrich your foes. We have allowed outsiders for selfish gains to use your treasures and shed innocent blood on your face. We have made you a laughing stock before those who use your diamond, gold, oil and others to adorn their streets We have given your foes the guts to present you as a beggar, when you have all the resources mouth can say. Hence, we are here in spirits, souls, minds and hearts drumming and dancing in praise of your comfort and care. We are praying that you warm us in your embrace, pardon and empower us for a new beginning because none but ourselves can restore your glory and honor. Mama Africa; we salute you.
© 1996, Chidi A. Okoye

"Blue Mom 2" by Chidi Okoye

For sales information email chidiartist@yahoo.com or call 404 508 5967.

Images are also in unique blank greeting cards of Art/poetry

Tribute to Mothers by Chidi Okoye - fine art

Painting * Sculpture* Drawing* Mixed Media

2007-01-19T23:14:00.000-08:00

African Art* Museum of African Art* Modern African Art

The African continent has produced a great diversity of art from prehistoric times to the present day. In many instances, art production has been related to ritual or tribal ceremonies, as well as serving more secular decorative functions, but it is not always easy to determine the function of a particular work. It is also problematic to label as 'art' the productions of African craftspeople who frequently considered their work as an essential part of secular or religious life. In many tribes, the artist had a high status, but the artist would not necessarily have been the equivalent of the western fine artist who relied on patronage or the marketplace to regulate his or her production. With these strictures in mind, it is possible to isolate different areas and different practices of African art. From c 7000 BC rock drawings

"reliable shoulder" by Chidi Okoye

include representations of animals and hunters. From the beginning of tribal differentiation, tribal art has become a way of isolating one tribe from another, and tribal art can take the form of scarification, body painting or sculptural masks used in religious ceremonies.

" Lolo" by Chidi Okoye

"Such diversity also appears in separate geographical regions, where natural resources dictated the materials used, while tribal power, wealth or sophistication was responsible for the type of objects produced. The Ashanti of Ghana used gold and bronze which were readily accessible in their territory, whereas the Baluba, a tribal people in the Congo, specialized in carved images of women holding bowls. The Fang group of tribes produced high-quality funerary sculptures which were dominated by geometric patterns. The Bambara of west Africa were known for their elaborate head-dresses, which were used during ceremonies, in contrast to the simple wooden masks of the Dogon people of west Africa. The art of Ife and Benin - both cities in western Nigeria - was lavish and naturalistic during the 12th - 17th centuries when those areas were infiltrated by European influences, and the Bakuba tribe was known for its royal portrait carvings. The dark wood of the Ivory Coast was the basis for sculptural figurines of the Baule people, who produced classically naturalistic masks, and terracotta was the material used for heads produced by the Nok peoples of central and north Nigeria. Nigeria was also the home of the Yoruba, one of the most prolific tribes in African art. "In the 19th and 20th centuries, African art was 'discovered' by Western colonizers and embraced by modernist artists

"Blue Mom" by Chidi Okoye

for its lack of pretension and exciting formal qualities. With the Westernization of much African society, 'traditional' art has become commercialized and sold as souvenirs, while from the 1920s, the growth of African art colleges in more modernized sections of Africa has led a number of African artists to adopt western influences in their work."
- From "The Bulfinch Guide to Art History"

2007-01-09T00:49:00.000-08:00

Celebration of 2007 by Chidi Okoye

Eve by chidi okoye

Birds of the same feather

heritage by Chidi Okoye

"Heritage" by Chidi Okoye is among many pieces of original painting, relief sculpture that is currently showing at www.rehobothstores.com.

Come and celebrate 2007 with us at www.rehobothstores.com/modern-art.htm

Rehobothstores offers an unforgetable shopping experience. Please visit our gift corner for electronics, clothing, frangrances, scented candles, men's shoes, women's shoes, handbags and purses, black dresses, bikinis, plasma tv, digital camera, ipod mp3,

2006-10-20T06:48:00.000-07:00

Magic Lines of Uli Art Style

Uli is an expression of the people’s capacity for creative design, which is firmly rooted in their myths and their experience of life in the past, present and future. At its best, it is an expression of their synthetic present, the epic of their search for a new order in the contemporary world. It is my traditional art style, which I have fallen in love with all over again and it is a privilege to share uli with you in my works. It has been shown that the knowledge of uli motifs and symbols and their application enables one to identify the traditional Igbo artifacts, giving validity to the people’s aesthetic intelligence and judgment. This culture is one of the first known cultures of the world in the recorded archeologically facts to have done bronze casting. (Igboukwu bronze).

Uli symbols may be said to show graphically how the organic forms grow outwards from the core of those elements to point, line, triangle, square and circle that are universal to the concentric circle at the periphery, which contains reflections of everyday world as seen by the artists. Just as the inner circle reflects the uncommon reality or ritual reality of the cultural existence, so the outer circle is in contact with the human and ecological reality, which it expresses. Artistic activities at Enugu formed part of the early post-1960 independence developments in the country. There was the growing local and international popularity of Nigerian novelists, dramatists, poets, literary critics, architects, artists, and musicians, and scholars. Interesting collaborations took place among those in the literary performing, and visual arts, particularly in southern Nigeria. The efforts and artistic lives of these minds sowed a flourishing seed for an uncommon global harvest. I give thanks to God for these great minds, your outstanding contributions will not be forgotten.

Uli creations relied heavily on drawing skills whose content is based largely on Igbo culture, particularly female body and wall painting called uli and on Igbo tales, ceremonies, and beliefs. The revival of interest in uli through contemporary art had begun with Uche Okeke in the 1960s, when Nigeria's independence produced a growing sense of freedom from colonial restraints on cultural tradition. It fully developed among teachers and students in the 1970s at the University in Nsukka and was linked to renewed interest in Igbo culture after the destructive Biafran War.

Traditional uli motifs, now rarely painted on human bodies or walls, have a strong linear, often curvilinear, quality. The art makes use of contrasts between positive and negative space, its images at times appearing as sky constellations. Uli’s lyrical qualities express harmony and brevity. It is art style that has often been created in freedom and spontaneity. “Uli is a pride heritage".

Uli motifs generally refer to images of everyday Igbo life, farm and cooking tools, pots, plants, birds, animals, the sun, the moon, and the kola nut, though some are pure design. For ceremonial occasions and important events, skilled Igbo female artists painted uli to add beauty to the human body and the walls of buildings and compounds. Uli has made her way in modern social settings; on sculptural surfaces and on paper, board, and canvas, framed and hung on walls in homes, institutions, and galleries of the world. Magic of Uli Lines, which is an extended dot or a moving point, has very many possibilities, particularly, the quickly drawn one. My drawing explores the evocative and lyrical possibilities of line and derives from Uli. The Uli artist works spontaneously whether on the human body or the wall.

There is no question of erasing or cleaning. There is something about the spontaneously executed work, a breathtaking vitality and freshness that defy description or repetition. An analysis of Igbo drawing and painting reveals that space, line pattern, brevity and spontaneity seem to be the pillars on which the rich tradition and heritage rests. It is these unique qualities that I strive for, both intuitive and intellectually to assimilate in my work. Intuitively, because during my years of studying and looking at Igbo sculpture, drawing and painting, various aspects of design and recurrent motifs have become internalized in my system and inevitably surface unconsciously in the course of executing my aesthetic challenges. It is perhaps needless to add that the great works of art is a result of the harmonious marriage of intellect and intuition.

Chidi Okoye’s profile click me Chidi Okoye is an award winning sculptor, painter, poet and author whose impressive bodies of work have won the admiration of local and international art collectors. For his works and more information go to: modernartimages.com or chidi.com Rehobothstores.com

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2006-07-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

"Mama African" by Chidi Okoye

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"Amina" by Chidi Okoye

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"Queen of JAzz" by Chidi Okoye

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