Featured Zambian Artist: Chalyapa Lwandu

Dom and I made our final Zambian art purchase, a lovely piece by Chalyapa Lwandu. Chalyapa focuses on more traditional content with a-typical techniques. He works fibers into his paintings which give them a lovely texture. I love the rural, ceremonial feel to his work. What I like the most about his pieces are the multi-dimensional texture, print, on top of the content. You can look at his piece for some time and see different things. I am so please with this painting! I can't wait to have it on top of our mantel somewhere!

Zambia Art: Stary Mwaba

I was first introduced to Stary Mwaba's work on my first weekend in Zambia. He showed at a Christmas fair, at the time I wasn't aware what a phenomenal body of work he had. But even then his pieces really grabbed my attention. Since then Stary has been to the New York, and had exhibitions several other places. His work is becoming international, so I knew we needed to add a piece to our collection prior to our departure.

Much of Stary's work depicts transition from rural life to city life. Transformation is a reoccurring theme. This is from Stary's newest series, where he creates pieces that incorporate chitenge material, a traditional African cloth. The material is used mainly by women as clothing and is patterned with a number of different designs both traditional and political. They represent to Mwaba a key part of the African culture, which have been manipulated by businesses and politics. Read more about Stary and his work here.

Stary is such an amazing artist, his story is inspirational. And his pieces allow the viewer to consider the many transitions that individuals go through, and the changing world that we are all a part of. I look forward to seeing where he goes in the future.

D.C. Bound

Well friends, Dom and I are off on yet another adventure. Due to an unforeseen medical issue it looks like we will be returning to D.C. a bit earlier than we had planned. Dom was diagnosed with a chronic condition right after his arrival to post. Unfortunately for us, there is no doctor here who specializes in the type of treatment that Dominic needs. So Med has changed our clearance and we are being sent back to D.C. for awhile. Possibly a year or two.

Things are still a little up in the air, we know that we will be leaving in the next two weeks, but don't have the exact date yet. As of Monday, we will be packing up. Didn't I just unpack? Oh well, there is nothing to do but move forward. I am going to a be an old pro at this before it's all said and done.

Anyhow, we look forward to seeing you all stateside. If you know of any apartment openings, please let me know as we are on the hunt. See you soon!!