Artist's statement I create these fibre sculpture figures to honour life, and life is most obvious through its creatures’ expressions. Be that creature human or animal, our expressions are the loudest testament to being alive. We, with our millions of individually unique faces and bodies, are what make earth exciting, dramatic, passionate, miserable, ecstatic, turbulent, gentle, hateful, beautiful and so much more, just by resting our head this way or looking at each other that way, closing our eyes or opening our mouths to Roaar or howl at the moon. And then there are our offspring…watching, learning, imitating and aspiring to become us, until their old enough to love who they are. This is where my creations come in. To teach children at a young age to love their childhood and bring them into the art world through their own world of storytelling and expressions. We confine art to the adult world and our appreciation is often attached to “experience”. At the same time we crave that uncomplicated, free expression that often eludes experienced artists as they lose the child within them, and with the child, their truest freedom of expression. Nature is where I find my freedom. My child. And that is where my figures, along with a story written up for each one, is inspired from. To be a reminder that there remains much to love about life
"I lay absolutely no claim on being the cause of this miraculous blossoming forth of artistic activity, merely the person who provided the opportunity for it...I find it just as natural as the germination of a seed which one has planted & tended, until it becomes the tree that already existed within it." R.W.W.
Batik requires the artist to be fast and sure of hand when about to paint with the hot melted wax. For it will not allow the artist the freedom to undo a mistake or change his/her idea & therefore it requires the artist to have the idea ready in his head before working .
The artists of the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art centre have been learning the craft since they were young. Closely watched for their safety and encouraged to freely express themselves, the masterpieces they have created over the years proved that beautiful creations can be made by planting a foundation of confidence in a child’s ability to create his or her own unique designs
The batiks of the centre are free hand designs on 100%Egyptian cotton using fast, fixed dyes. As with all other activities in the centre, the artists do not make any preliminary sketches and so each piece is unique. Although the colour scheme may be repeated the design never is.
As mentioned in previous pages on the site, the artists follow 4 golden rules set down by Ramses 60 years ago and followed by his daughter, Yoanna who is the current director of the batik and cotton weaving schools of the art centre. The 4 rules are:
1-No preliminary sketches as Ramses was convinced that only the risk involved in creating directly in the material itself can provoke and channel the creative effort.
2- No external artistic influences (therefore no copying), as children needed to be protected against the doubts that can be aroused by the feeling of someone else’s superiority
3- No criticisms or interference from adults as it is often a crippling intrusion that causes the child to lose the very desire to express himself
4- No repetition. To keep their creativity alive
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