BATIK ART BY LUKANDWA DOMINIC

The green batik above is a latest improvement of the FISH MEETING batik series that I started last year.

With this new batik I was trying to bring to life my childhood memory of a mud walled house that I grew up in in the 1980s. The walls were cracked every where in the house. I enjoyed lying down and looking up on the walls in the sitting room, where my stepmother kept her photographs and mats. She was one o the best mat weavers in the village. In this batik I wanted to portray my stepmother sitting down, posing for a photograph with the cracked wall in the background.

This batik shows the direction that Dominic's batik art is taking in this new year. There is going to be a lot of emphasis on detail and color variation but keeping within the trademark style of his art. This is an upgraded version of GIFTS FOR HER that he first did in 2009. The photo was taken with the batik hanging on a line after ironing out the wax.

My last project this year that I started in November is the use of one sketch to do two works in varying patterning and color. The picture shows three Ugandan women weaving baskets and exchanging knowledge about baskets. These two batiks summarize what I've been doing this year - telling a Ugandan story through the colorful patterning in our fabrics. These patterns are all unique and original. I take an extra mile at ensuring that each person in the batik wears a dress with a different pattern. I thank God for you my friends who have encouraged me and made it possible for me to continue creating. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

This is a batik that I was not ready to do but later agreed to take on the challenge. A hippo with young on the beach side. I thank God because this was an unexpected success and the beginning of more animal batik projects in the new year 2011.

This is the last of my fish meeting series. I wanted the crack effect to dominate this picture for it to have a strong look. Street scene batik (Old Kiwoko hospital maternity ward and doctor's village) This batik shows growing maturity in depicting street scene in my batik art. The location is the old Kiwoko hospital maternity ward and doctor's village in the middle ground. I think I'm now ready to try a city-scape scene from Kampala city.

This is a brand new batik titled FACING THE COMPETITION (2010) 22"X33". The inspiration for this work came from new trends in interior design whereby the use of big handmade flower vases takes center stage. These are stuffed with dry flowers of various types to create a welcoming atmosphere. In one of the shopping malls that I visited, flower vases had been lined up outside an antique shop. My interest was in the distinct patterning on each of these vases. It appeared like they were in some form of a competition. I dwelt on this imaginary idea of a competition and I wanted to extend it a notch higher by stuffing the vases with a common type of dry flowers, the dry sticks. This is one of the few works inspired by interior design trends.