I used to paint when I was in art school and a little bit after. Eventually, I stopped while I was concentrating on improving my design skills for my career as a designer.

Now I just like to enjoy the fine arts. I keep up with what’s going on in the art world via the internet. As far as Ethiopian art and artists are concerned I am with most in the Ethiopian fine art community that there was a period in which our art was not making significant socio political commentary.

Outside of the big names that have been present since the 70’s and just like music there haven’t been major movements. But this is another topic that should be its own topic.

Now I would like to introduce to you Ezra Wube, whose work I was first introduced to years ago in 2004. I have sporadically following his work through the last couple of years.

From the amount of work coming out on his website, it seems like he is and has been working full time.

I bought the above painting called Azenes because I like the ambiguous use of physical space in the image and the colors and the depth of field in the fabrics.

I thought they were going to Leqso in special local clothing. I was attracted to the sadness but the Azene serious of painting according to the Artist:

My current Azene paintings are based on my visit to Ethiopia in August 2008. Azene is short for Gojam Azene which is the name given to a type of new colorful fabrics. Gojam is a region in the northeast, and Azene means he is sad. When I previously visited the Gojam market in 2004, the villagers wore traditional clothes.

Traditional clothes are made from cotton; they are mainly white with a strip of colorful design along the edges, visually unifying the people, creating oneness. Traditional clothes are made from scratch by the individual’s family member.

In my visit to Goajm’s market in August 2008, these traditional clothes were being replaced by Gojam Azene. Visually separating the people, these new industrial, acrylic, synthetic fabrics seemed to be favored by the villagers. They are cheap, light to wear and offer various color choices, however, it can be seen as one of the first signs of modernism erasing tradition.

Wow, so I am very excited about these painting hanging in my living room not only because of the commentary in Ethiopian tradition but also its contemporary modernism observations.

There are a few imperfect things that annoy me about the painting but I am trying to overlook them as no work is perfect, thus I don’t want to make a comment on it. I just didn’t want to shamelessly plug my painting.

More on Ezra on Abesha; and a real Gojam Azene