Welcome to "Tie & Dye with Gifti"!

10/23/08
The final project for my Art History class is to interview a local artist, asking him or her questions about what he or she does art. I chose to interview Gifty, who is the Ghanaian that works for the American missionary family that we have been growing so close to here (Nicole, Kirk, Aidan, & Eli--the Sims family).

Ever since arriving in Ghana, I have marveled at the beautiful colors and designs of tie & dye fabric wondering HOW EXACTLY do these Ghanaian women do this? So, I spent the morning doing tie & dye with Gifty--which was such a wonderful treat. If you cannot tell by her expression in some of the (above) photos, Gifty has seriously one of the most beautiful smiles that I have EVER seen in my life. Her joy is contagious and it is evident in her spirit that she is alive and on fire for Christ.


A few things that I gathered/learned from my time spent with Gifty:
-Gifty draws her inspiration for tie & dye from nature and natural things. She used a butterfly as an example, saying that she looks at the wings, the yellow and the black and the dots, observing the pattern from the inside of the wings to the outside of the wings, and then mimics it in the pattern of her tie & dye fabrics. She looks at leaves--at the ripening colors, the veins, the unique, but repetitive patterns, she looks at the skin on animals, and all other sorts of naturally-occurring patterns and colors.

-Gifty told me that many people simply create what they have been taught, only what they learned, and that they don't expand beyond that. She continued, "But I like to experiment and use my imagination, testing and trying out patterns and techniques with sticks, broom bristles, and objects around me...you never know what you will create."

-Gifty's sister, who use to work for World Vision, hired tie & dye artists to teach village women the art (in hopes of promoting self-sufficiency through making tie & dye as a long-term career). One day, her sister invited her to come and witness the process of tie & dye, and that is how she learned.

-According to Gifty, African tie & dye originated in Berkina Faso and Nigeria, before spreading to Ghana. Tie & dye originated in Africa, where people who did not have machinery could do this art with their hands, making it possible to be an artisan without much equipment.

-You must use hot water (in Gifty's case, heated by hot coals) to dissolve the dye into the water.

-To Gifty, "Art" means "Imagination, then creation."

-Sometimes, inspiration and ideas come to Gifty through dreams at night.

-For Gifty, more of her inspiration for tie & dye comes from her mind, then it translates into her hands.