Facing the Summer

When a friend of mine moved from an old apartment she gave me this palm log carving of a face. She said that it have her the creeps but I find it charming. I have no idea who the artist was or if it represents anything special but it is great with nasturtiums. 

Craftsmanship

This is a detail of a door at Rifaii mosque in old Cairo. The mosque was built during the late 1800's and early 1900's. It houses the tombs of the royal family of Egypt and also the tomb of the late Shah of Iran.  The door is made out of small pieces of wood and ivory that have been fitted together to form the pattern. If you touch it, you can feel each piece of wood or ivory move independently.

Fading Into White.

We had a young German couple come to stay at the farm a little while ago. They do photographic art and went out to the Rural Wellness Initiative Egypt's mobile vet clinic with us. Jan Nikolai set up a white plastic drop cloth to shoot portraits of some of the farmers and children with their animals. The results were amazing.

Opposite of a Post Card

In the villages, when a member of the family has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, a painting is often added to the front of the house, sometimes showing the means of transport, but always showing the Kaaba. Rather than taking photos there, they come home and then record it.

Creativity

A traditional component of most village homes is a mastaba, a bench on the front of the home where the family can sit in the cool of the evening or in the morning sun. Many of them are simply painted concrete, but the owners of this home took fragments of tile to create this image of lotus flowers.

Street Art

After years and years when anything like street art was illegal, the wellsprings of graffiti have burst their boundaries and I love it. We found this on Road 9 today. Wonderful stuff.

Don't Point Your Fingari!

A graffiti portrait of one of the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces generals whose name is Fingari. The pun is pretty obvious. This is from Tahrir. Finger pointing is considered very rude in Egyptian culture and he gave a speech in which he did that a lot.

Etfadalu! Welcome!

This is one of the wrought iron statues at Fagnoon. Most, if not all, are created by the owner Mohamed Allam. The bridge goes over the canal so that child and adult clients can wander back and forth to do pottery, painting, or maybe play in the mud pit. What a wonderful place!

Soon Appearing at a Midan Near You

We were driving into the city today to do some necessary errands and to see what was going on for the first time in a few weeks. The traffic was occasionally even worse than usual Cairo traffic. We found out later that there was a fire in the Ministry of the Interior downtown (rumours are that a records room burned...how convenient!) and a demonstration at the Ministry of Agriculture. Not sure what that one was about.

On our way into the city on the Moneeb Bridge we spotted a pickup truck with a wrought iron sculpture in the back. The young people holding it up were cheering and we weren't the only ones shooting pictures. A young man was sitting in the window of the passenger side of a car and following the truck. The sculpture was created by Mohamed Allam of Fagnoon and I'll have to keep my eye out for it.

Beginning a Batik

A staff member at Wissa Wassef explains how the batiks that they make there are prepared. This one is floral and starting in a startling orange.

Watching the Door

The Photography Elf was waiting for me to do something at a friend's place the other day and noticed this statue at a garden gate. Nice catch.

Topiary

Various types of ficus trees thrive in Egypt growing lush and green. Things like those spindly Ficus benjamina that people fuss over in the north, shoot up to massive trees in a matter of months. Since they are evergreen they make great topiary, trees and shrubs carved into shapes. This tree has the word "Allah" carved into it in counterpoint to the mosque of Mohamed Ali at the Citadel.

FEET!!

Cairo roads provide endless amusement. I was interested in the haj painting on the back of the truck and only spotted the feet later.

The Guardian

Most cars here have a copy of the Quran in the glove compartment and something to ward off evil hanging from the mirror. Anyone who's driven in Cairo will not be the least bit surprised. We have a blue "kaf", or hand of Fatima, but George, the orange and green beaded lizard, is our primary guardian with his big bug eyes on watch for the suicidal/homicidal lunatics who share the road with us.

The Only Way To Fly

I was in the Ramses Station in Cairo to catch a train to Alexandria and saw this rail car. They should paint all of them like this. Wonderful!

Mural Painting in Maadi

I'm not sure what the occasion is since I'm mostly in and out of Maadi in a rush these days, but recently a group of people have been painting a wall on Road 9. I approve of murals.

And In The Centre Ring....

I was driving along happily minding my own business when I spotted a psychedelic camel and what appeared to be a saber-tooth tiger...or maybe just a regular tiger or lion or other large cat...standing in the front garden of an apartment building. I had to get a photo. It appears to be a company that does large statues and while I can kind of understand Venus de Milo and maybe Marcus Aurelius...or even the camel!..the guy with the black hair on the balcony is just a little too weird.

Nahdet Masr

Egypt Awakening is the title of this monumental sculpture that stands at the entrance to Cairo University. It is the work of Mohamed Mokhtar (1891-1934) one of Egypt's earliest modern artists. It portrays a woman and a sphinx.

Mirroring a Palm

The Wissa Wassef Museum in Harania is built in domes, smooth soft lines and arches, based on traditional architecture. from the arches leading into the museum the pillar supporting a larger room almost looks like a palm tree.

Critique

A batik painter at the Wissa Wassef center discusses his plans for a large cloth as some visitors watch.