ArtFire

12x11" / 32x30cm 8-color archival giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag®. There will be no watermark and it will be signed and dated by myself.



This is a unique art form using instruments and techniques developed by myself since 2000. You will not find anything like this anywhere else in the world. I call it sand calligraphy or beach calligraphy. The letters and designs are carved directly into the sand and photographed before the ocean claims it.



ArtFire is the first avenue I have explored for selling prints online.

The characters in this piece take their inspiration mainly from the Adinkra symbols of the Akan people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The symbols are neither alphabetic nor pictographic like the Egyptian symbols, but rather stylised motifs which were used to convey a range of things from historical events to attitudes, objects and even proverbs. I just like the look of them and like to play with them. I seldom use them in a meaningful way. :-)
However, what is meaningful for me here is how these symbols convey a sense of the graphic roots of human thought and language so easily forgotten in typical Western writing which is much more abstract. For example, the Adinkra symbol for patience, fondness and care is a wooden hair comb.

beach, beach calligraphy instruments designed by myself, Nikon D80, Sigma 10-20mm lens