Tata Mask Drawing

A did a new drawing today. It was a cool, rainy day in Riga. Motivation and ambition have been low for me lately. I have lists and lists of things to do; ideas to explore, comix stories to layout; planning for a small press festival, etc, but I haven’t done any drawing in too long. I get cranky and worried if I don’t do some drawing on a regular basis. Maybe the machine will rust, seize up and that will be it! I will only get to do so many drawings. This weird and wild creature came from the Instagram feed of @Artkhade. Of course I was attracted to this mask for it’s intensity and rawness and because it reminded me of horror movies. I love the square eye holes and broad, fierce mouth and all those lovely teeth.

The Dogon people, well one of them, hacked out this Tata mask. I always encourage anyone who enjoys this art to learn more about the original culture and history. A good place to start is the listing on the Artkhade website. Artkhade is an amazing resource for browsing “ancient arts from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas” and learning about the market for these incredible objects. This particular Tata mask recently sold at auction for €110,500! It’s difficult for me to correlate the idea of that much money being traded for this piece of art. It really doesn’t make any sense to me. This mask has a reality and power that transcends money. The craft person who created it was motivated by spiritual purpose, but who knows. Maybe it gave some currency and power (one and the same) to the maker within their culture? Isn’t that what many artists have chased through the centuries and still pursue today?

On this rainy day, I was just trying to get my ass moving, so thank you Tata mask and the Dogon people for the inspiration.

OK HW