Original Tribal Arts

16/10/2026

A method gives attention a direction, but it cannot decide what an object will reveal.

That remains the work of looking carefully, recording what is there, and allowing understanding to develop from the evidence.

The sequence is constant. What each object teaches is never predetermined.

14/10/2026

Carved from a single block of wood. A crest rises from the crown; the neck is ringed; the shoulders are broad and squared.

Look at the right foot: a vertical split runs through it. Observe the detail; distinguish what the surface shows from what the record documents.

Luluwa Maternity Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 19th–20th century. Wood, pigment.
From the Felice Maffei Collection, acquired in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1985.

12/10/2026

The first painting in the chapter. An ochre-orange wrap, bands of orange, brown and white around the neck, a patterned cloth holding the child on her back. The colour gathers where the people are; around them, the sky stays grey.

Signed and dated by the artist: M. Gaston, ‘87.

African Mother, Kenya, dated 1987. Oil on canvas.
From the Felice Maffei Collection, acquired in Kenya, 1987.

09/10/2026

Start with the outline.

Trace it with your eye from the tip of the crest to the base of the legs, without stopping at any detail. Then trace it again, more slowly. What you have followed is the structure: one line carried forward, one volume held up.

Baga Nimba Mask — Guinea

From the Felice Maffei Collection, acquired in Ivory Coast, 1971

07/10/2026

A cut. A surface. A mark of wear.

Each was made, or earned, over time. They show themselves only to those who stay with the object long enough to see them.

Object Education begins.

First comment

The eye learns by staying with one object. Object Education begins here.

02/10/2026

02/10/2026

Fourteen posts, one structure. This is how it all connects. Explore the full record at originaltribalarts.com.

02/10/2026

Every name in this litany carries the same weight, because none of them holds the object alone. What continues isn’t a person — it’s the responsibility passed between them.

30/09/2026

Looking once is not the same as learning to see. The habit only holds if it’s practiced again and again, on purpose.