Notes on South African house painting

Remember the little piece we did about Esther Mahlangu, the South African woman who has travelled the world after her traditional village house painting style got picked up by galleries?

South African tribal art

Well Jill has put together a gallery of notebooks over on Facebook, perfect for stocking fillers. My favourite? These super tribal designs from Darkroom, which let you get a bit of the look without, you know, repainting your whole house.

Camille Walala tribal notebooks

Nice aren’t they? Reports that the patterns on the notebooks symbolize the words for ‘prawn’, ‘lightening’ and ‘rocking horse’ cannot be confirmed at this time*. I’m having a bit of an episode.

*If you’re reading this in the future, find out what I’m referring to here.

 

 

 

4 Responses to “Notes on South African house painting”

  1. caroline
    December 13, 2013 at 3:49 pm #

    Blimey. Taking the piss out of someone purportedly having a schizophrenic episode whilst talking about notebooks. I normally love your blog but this is a new low

    • myfriendshouse
      December 13, 2013 at 4:18 pm #

      Dear Caroline
      sorry to hear that you were offended by our post. We take mental health issues seriously and have no desire to be disrespectful. However I feel that the global coverage of this story – to the extent that it has temporarily eclipsed the death of our age’s greatest figure – is in itself a subject for both astonishment and, yes, humour. I did not judge referencing an event which everybody has been talking about non-stop as joining in any sort of attack on the man himself, nor on mental illness. I hope you can understand our position.

  2. Helene
    December 13, 2013 at 6:06 pm #

    I was just about to be really fed up that MFH was jumping on the bandwagon and adding to the “over coverage” of the great man’s passing when I clicked on your footnote* and laughed out loud at the reference to the unorthodox signing by Mr Jantjie. I was not offended, nor did I feel that you were “taking the piss” out of this poor man. The wit and gentle humour of your blog is always great.

    • myfriendshouse
      December 14, 2013 at 7:00 pm #

      thanks Mum x

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