There's something satisfying about glopping large amounts of paint onto a surface.  I've often admired the large murals that contemporary artists create in this way.  In Mansehra, with plenty of spare time to come up with ideas, I decided to try it for myself.

Canvas is expensive and not really available in Mansehra, so I bought plywood instead.  Oil artist paints are expensive and not really available in Mansehra, so I used enamel house paint.  And I didn't do anything too large - all the art pictured is less than two feet by two feet - since I knew I'd have to pack it up and get it out of there when I left Mansehra.

Following my usual love of found objects, each of these paintings incorporates something I saw in a local market and bought to add texture and variety to the artworks.  (Remember, I have little talent as a painter, but I can do assemblages.)  No need for glue - I just stuck the objects into the wet paint and let it dry.

Pakistan Love (for Jules)

enamel house paint and bought prayer pouches on plywood

Mansehra, August 2007

Outside the little shop that sold expat goods in our Mansehra suburb of Ghazikot sat a shoe repair guy.  His "stall" was nothing but a six foot by six foot space on the sidewalk with a shoe iron and a few tools.  Various leather soles and heels and other shoe parts lay scattered around him.

One of his products in particular caught my eye  where they hung in plastic strings from a line above his head as he worked.  These were small leather squares, each with a sticker heart on them.  Upon closer examination I found that they were two squares sewn together to form a small pouch.  Fascinated with these, though unsure what I would do with them, I bought a few.

When I got the idea for this artwork I went back and bought more.  The shoe repair man himself didn't speak much English, but one of the times I stopped he had a friend who did.  The friend asked me the usual questions, "Where are you from?"  "What is your name?"  "Where is your house?"

Then he pointed to the squares I was buying and asked, "Do you know what these are for?"  I didn't, so he told me.  "We put verses from the Koran in them and give them to sick friends," he said.  Then I liked them even more, these "prayer pouches," and I imagine them, in this painting, filled with good wishes to heal my friends.

Pakistan Luck (for Jules)

enamel house paint, bought prayer pouches and bands on plywood

Mansehra, August 2007

In Mansehra the Pakistani penchant for decoration that shows so clearly on trucks and other vehicles also reveals itself on compound walls.  Usually the wall decorations take the shape of simple, repeating graphic designs etched into the concrete then painted.  I took photos of numerous of these walls; could almost make a "Walls of Mansehra " poster like people make them out of pictures of, say, Venice doors or Paris windows.

Hearts are a common theme, not only on the walls but also on the decorated canvas flaps of the mini-Jeeps that, their pickup-style bed lined with benches, run passenger routes like a bus.  This particular heart design, which reminded me of a four leaf clover (the "luck" part) I found on a wall not far from our Ghazikot house.

The corner decorations on the painting are prayer pouches stuck on an elastic band to wear on your wrist.

Blue Stripes

enamel house paint, TV wires and connectors on plywood

Mansehra, August 2007 

When I went to buy my plywood "canvas" I saw rolls of two-wire TV cable in appealing shades of blue, green, and yellow.  I bought a roll of the blue to use in an art piece.  The guy tending the shop handed me a few of the black connectors as well, since, duh, I'd obviously be needing them if I was running some TV wire.

But of course, I wasn't using the wire as TV cable.  Still, I kind of liked the shape of those TV connectors.  After staring at these items for some time, I came up with this artwork idea.

Green Rounds on Orange

enamel house paint and bought green rounds on plywood

Mansehra, August 2007 

These green rounds I bought in a similar situation as the blue TV wire -  walking past a shop I saw them and decided I could use them for something.  I don't even know what purpose they serve in real life.

Mickey in Pakistan: Mickey goes militant 

enamel house paint and bought stickers on plywood

Manshera, August 2007 

Mickey Mouse is another popular decoration image around Mansehra, though, as here, the portrayal is usually a little off.  The Mickey images stuck on the artworks above and below are actually hand-made (not by me) out of individual pieces of glossy, colored sticker material.  Someone took the time to cut out each shape from its particular color of sticker sheet and then put them all together to form the final image.  All I did was stick the Mickey into the wet paint.

Similarly, I made the letters out of long, narrow sheets of sticker material hand-cut into 'traditional' free-flowing graphics patterns.  These are usually used as borders or edging on the decorated trucks.

The inspiration for this "Mickey in Pakistan" series came when I saw, on a bus stop, a painting of Mickey with a "Kill Me" graffiti tag next to it.  Such "Kill Me" tags were not unusual around Mansehra; I have yet to discover what motivates them or what their ultimate meaning is supposed to be.  I found the juxtaposition of Mickey and this tag particularly fascinating.  I resolved to continue this tradition of cross-cultural Mickey-posting (artwork below).

The "I Blow" tag above came from a wall in Islamabad.  Beside these words was a graffiti picture of a suibomr (that's short for suicide bomber) looking for all the world like a turbaned Pillsbury Doughboy, a belt of explosives strapped around his waist.

Like the "Kill Me" tag, I'm not exactly sure what these artworks are supposed to 'mean.'  In the end I think I just get a kick out of juxtaposing the supposedly innocent Mickey with the wild, surreal world of Pakistani under-culture.

Mickey in Pakistan: Mickey tags a wall

enamel house paint and bought stickers on plywood

Mansehra, August 2007 

For larger images of these artworks click here, or go to the "Gallery" link on the website menu and click on the "Art from Mansehra " entry.