My idea for carving on wooden doors came to me in a dream. Not just carving, but to carve African -inspired images onto doors- doors symbolic of my cultural past.
As a result, with the Doors to the past, I have recreated the elaborate African mask images using old and new wooden doors as the surface. I hand carve the images using original African masks as guides. The background incorporates patterns from African wax print fabric and created my own original designs using geometric shapes similar to the wax prints. In keeping with tradition of black wood normally used for African mask- carving, the doors were stained with black ink after carving. The resulting contrast serves to emphasize the images. In addition to the finished images on the doors, I produced relief prints out of the carved surface.
BFA – Painting and Drawing, New Jersey city University