‘Jesus Mafa’ Paintings

Earlier this month my friend (and ethnomusicologist) Paul Neeley posted on his blog about the 'Jesus Mafa' paintings.  These paintings were produced in a collaboration between Mafa Christians in northern Cameroon and French missionaries.  The paintings that resulted from this partnership were western in style, but depicted the Mafa and their environment accurately so that the Mafa could identify with the biblical stories being portrayed.  Please check out Paul's post and see a wonderful example of one type of visual contextualization.  The last paragraph is especially worth reading!  And check out the Jesus Mafa website too.

Artist's Frame in Visual Arts

While waiting for approval on a couple of posts I've already written, I thought I would briefly discuss a topic from the class module I taught in September at GIAL: in visual arts, the concept known as frame.

Frame is the purpose or intention of the artist in communicating a message in a visual artwork.  When using visual arts to communicate a message, frame becomes very important.  In order to interpret the message in a visual artwork correctly, the audience needs to understand the intention of the artist.  Otherwise, the message is likely to be misinterpreted or ignored completely by the audience.