Beauty in the Light






"My Sea, My Sister, My Tears by Ntombephi “Induna” Ntobela.






I recently had the opportunity to see the exhibit Ubuhle Women-Beadwork and the Art of Independence, at Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio. To say that their beadwork is dazzling, exquisite, or beautiful is an understatement. Words don't do it justice, nor do my pictures do these pieces their just do, but I had to share because I made a connection with them. Something spoke to me on an energetic level, definitely an emotional one, perhaps even a cellular level. 














The Ubuhle artists community was begun in 1999 as a way to empower women living and working together in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Working with traditional skills they produced a new beading style on  a black cloth called ndwango. Many of the women are single mothers and their art goes to help support their families. The name Ubuhle means "beauty" but specifically the "shimmering quality of light in glass" which also has special "spiritual significance." As someone who also has had a long love affair with the way light reflects through glass ( a childhood memory, see my earlier blog post "It Takes a Village) I totally understand. There is a quality of light that I find meditative, and these brightly colored, swirling designs of tiny glass beads mesmerized me this day.
















The playful colors, the textures and patterns, the memories interwoven through out, like this one "My Mother's Peach Tree, speak of the simple joy of life and living. It is exuberant, it is hopeful. What strikes me is that women, even dealing with extreme poverty and illness still see and feel the beauty of life and nature and are desirous to create and share that beauty forward with others. Women always strive to make things beautiful for their loved ones. 









Each woman in the community works in her own style and an average panel can take up to 10 months to complete.





































There are a number of beaded works of Bulls and it was explained that each woman spent time with that animal, getting to know it and taking pictures of it so that over the many months of beading work they would be able to remember its characteristics.




As I walked through the first room I read a quote from one of the woman who had since passed away from HIV/AIDS, a disease that has taken 5 women artists now from their collective and has devastated their villages. She spoke of beading throughout her illness, how it helped her get through her days, how she believed she was weaving her Self, her essence, her memory into her art, into the very fibers of the textile she was creating. Something of her to leave behind as she knew she would not survive and for a moment I felt her and all of the women. I saw their collective beauty reflected back in the shimmering light cast from the thousands upon thousands of tiny glass beads. I connected with their joys and sorrows in every flower, animal and bird.














At the conclusion of the main exhibit we were directed to go upstairs to see this final, massive piece entitled "The African Crucifixion" which is 15' high and took over one million beads, and a year to complete. Seven artists made the panels and cross that make up this work. I found that when you moved out from the piece different images came to life that you didn't see up close. Birds suddenly appeared in trees, the stars in the sky above twinkled and patterns came alive in the swirls of space.
It was magical, it was beautiful, it was alive with memories and it radiated love.


"The African Crucifixion."
Thank you for sharing your art, your lives and your dreams with us. You are all truly women inspirit.































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