Shona Stone Elephant Herd of 8 Sculpture Zimbabwe Africa 55 Inch

Signed by Artist: "12/8/2012 R. Josarama"

Additional Information: Zimbabwe had a tradition of stone carving going back to The Great Zimbabwe, but the modern art forms did not begin until McEwan established his workshops. We spent six weeks in July and August on an African buying trip, which included quite a bit of time in Zimbabwe. The co-op from which we buy a great deal of our Shona sculpture has been decimated by AIDS and all of the artists are hungry. No tourists means no money......for many of the sixty artists from whom we bought, ours was the first money they had gotten in several months. We are sending them additional money each month from sales of Shona sculpture on eBay and our website. Shona sculpture-I have a huge collection of Shona pieces in rapocco, green and black serpentine, leopard rock, and verdite--some are four feet tall!. In our extensive time in Zimbabwe, we saw an enormous amount of wonderful sculpture. We did the largest amount of our buying from a wonderful co-op of about forty artists. My partner apprenticed with them, and learned to repair sculpture, which she has done for galleries, museums, and private collections. Instead of putting pieces in the fire, as they do in Zimbabwe, we use space heaters, hair dryers, and pots of boiling water. For more information on the Shona sculptors of Zimbabwe, see ZIMBABWE HERITAGE, CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS.