Du Pintor - Local Artist, Guinea Bissau

You've probably noticed by now that my blog has a brand new design! And, maybe you're thinking it's kind of soon to be tired of my old design since I only started this blog in January. Well, I think I have the perfect excuse. The reason, is because I found the most awesome artist named Du Pintor. Du is from Guinea Bissau and he is one of those talented people whose gift is lost (to the world outside of Guinea Bissau) because he lives in a very poor country with very little opportunity.

Since I'm an artist, I had been wondering what kind of art is done in Guinea Bissau and also what kind of jewelry is made there (art and jewelry, two of my most favorite things) Anyway, I decided to ask Maritza if she knew of any artistic types. She told me that she knew of a very good artist who had painted a mural on the walls of Casa Emanuel Orphanage. She sent me a few samples of his work and, well -- I fell in love with his style. So much so that I decided to feature one of his pieces as my new "My Africa, My America" blog banner. Hope you like it! (BTW-the site is still devon4Africa but I chose the new tag line to more accurately represent where I want to go with the dialogue)

Anyway, back to Du. I think he's very  good and I would like to see him get a chance to show his work outside of Guinea Bissau.  So, I'm going to see what I can do for him. I have asked him to paint the cover for my book on Djati. But in the meantime, he is painting a couple of pieces for me and sending them via an American visitor that will be there in November. Can't wait!

I also asked Du if he would share some of his life story with us. He was very excited about having me talk about his work.

So here's what he wrote

Father          Nhamo Seidi

Mother        Fatumata  Trauale

Single

High School Graduate

 

I come from a humble family and I live with my parents, I am the only son, of seven children, Even though we are many and are living in one house , we have a reasonable life style as much as financial possibilities allow us to have.

I am an artist, I also do sculptures in gourds and I also sculpt and draw on horns, I also work part time on a radio station,

 I do not consider myself a great artist, like some people tell me, because I cannot express all of my work, due to difficulties, I draw with regular oil paints, the kind of paint used for painting homes, brushes, acrylic paints are very difficult to find here and it makes things difficult for me, harder to sell my drawings due to the lack of materials.

I already graduated from High School but can’t go to college due to finances. My greatest dream is to study painting and I also would like to do Administrations and International Relations, I joined the radio station in order to have another way of making a living, I can’t make it just painting, and can’t help my family with the finances my paintings give me.

Musically:  I enjoy Simon and Garfunkel, Beatles, U2, and R. Kelly, sometimes I listen to them while I do my paintings,

My name Du came up as a diminutive of Mamadu and pintor is the word for painter. Du Painter, that is what I am, this is more or less a small biography of my life,

Please receive my sincere greetings

Sincerely
Mohamed L. Seidi 

Du Pintor

Du at work

wall mural

What do you think of Du's art?