Scenes from Ile De Goree #001: Sand Painting

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I wish I could remember this man’s name, i think his family name was Diop…The sand painting he is holding was done in probably 5 minutes. I probably should have taken a video, but I am quite self conscious about being exploitative or making the art and the artist feel like an object in my lens.

I have seen sand paintings before as finished products, but have never seen the process or materials that make the final product.

Below are a few photos of a quick “sketch” that Diop did to showcase the wide variety of sand that is used to give color and texture to these sand paintings. Every color that you see on the wood is a sand that occurs naturally in terrain of Senegal, from grey-blue to the volcanic black…

It took Diop longer to explain where all the colors and textures came from than it took him to actually lay down this sketch, which he actually considers a throwaway…beautiful stuff.