ARTIST: MAZVITA SHALOM WUTA
COUNTRY: ZIMBABWE
MATERIALS USED: PENCILS
Pardon my sense of humour, but sitting in this house for more than a month and imagining that the whole world is also staying indoors, walking with masks, wearing gloves, sanitizing every here and there because of a virus is a bit funny. I mean we have lived with HIV and AIDS but hey, surely this virus deserves to be called a pandemic as the time has changed so has my life as an artist.
Most of my motivation as an artist came from the outside world. Visiting game ranges and zoos was my life and now all I can do is imagine. As an artist, your imagination is infinite endless to be more precise and the pandemic has made me realise that. After all, Albert Einstein once said ‘Logic can get you from A-Z but imagination can get you everywhere’ and here I am.
I am very fond of the elephants not only because of their impressive sharp memory but because of their emotional nature. Every time I saw them they were always together and now it made me realize that in this pandemic we have each other and we should embrace that. The Giraffe always made me wonder what exactly it sees up there and during this lockdown as l was busy doing the usual(nothing) it clicked that as much as we really can’t see it now, there is something to look forward to which is a better tomorrow.
The giraffe has hope and so should we. For every creature with wings like the vulture, there is a time to fly and a time to land. For us humans with invisible wings, this is our time to discover our inner selves, improve our talents and just heal from the day to day work and school pain we suppress. Remembering to be as beautiful as the butterfly it shall all go well in this jungle we call “World” and beautiful animals we call “People”.
My sketch is about one of the things, l love, dearly but can’t see for a while to come, it portrays that even thou we are isolated from the whole world life will still go on. As an artist, this lockdown has given me time to sit, think and most importantly imagine. So here l am drawing each and every continent in the world hoping that one-day l will explore this jungle we call a world. I could go on and on but our time is limited.
