Our next story takes us to a familiar location, The Image Factory.
Known for its presentations of cutting edge contemporary art exhibits, today’s
presentation is different. That’s because the pieces on display are labours
of love produced by over a dozen budding, young artists, trying to bring awareness
to Belizeans that there is a thriving wood carving industry does exist and much
of Belize’s culture can be found in the most intricate and detailed carvings,
derived from some of Belize’s most treasured woods.
Wilfred Garbutt, President
“Now some of the pieces that you will see here today, these artists
have gone into the wood and created these art. Some of the pieces you will not,
it is what we call rustic. It still has the natural, a part of the wood hasn’t
been touched, it is the natural texture of the wood that has decayed, the outer
part has decayed and the harder part remained and what happened is the artist
would look at it and see an image that is already portrayed in the wood and
so what he would try to do is just bring it out some more.”
Garbutt is the President of the newly formed Kinich Ahau Committee, whose
goal it is, in his own words: “to promote, enhance, enrich and healthily
sustain the industry.”
Wilfred Garbutt,
“We target mostly cruise ship tourists coming to Belize but we want
to get more Belizeans involved in buying art, in purchasing art, and so what
we want to say to all Belizeans we know that everyone has a passion for art
and it varies but in the communities surrounding Altun Ha we have talent that
can create any of your imagination, any of your passion, can create it from
wood and we want people to be able to have that, to put a beautiful wood sculpture
in their home.”
The exhibition starts tonight at 7 PM and is part of the Kinich Ahau
Art Festival which was launched as the Promote an Artist Evening at the Bliss
Centre for the Performing Arts on February 12th.
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