Art

The Tribal art of PNG, like most other aspects of PNG culture, is diverse and largely based around spiritual and religious beliefs.
The most popular medium of artwork is wood carving/painting. New Guineans use crude instruments, such as stone chisels and bone to carve the wood. In carving, the wood is made to depict mythical spirits and gods. Pigs, birds, crocodiles, and other animals native to PNG are commonly carved, for they are intertwined into the religious belief systems, and are paid homage to. To pay even greater respect, carvings are often times painted. The paint used is made by the artist, who searches for certain roots and leaves that, once ground up and mixed with water, produce rich and vibrant pigments. These pigments are then used to decorate the wooden carvings, fittingly incorporating colors found in their natural environment. Once finished, carvings are placed in ceremonially and religiously important areas, and are then honored and prayed to in the hopes of yielding a prosperous harvest and protecting the tribe from evil spirits.
Although I am not a very religious person per say, I understand how art made of the land can reflect artistic creativity in a way that brings about a feeling of spiritual significance by paying homage to the land of which it was created.
My mother is the current owner of an art gallery in my home town of Groton, Massachusetts, representing over 80 artists from the New England area. Aside from being a gallery owner, she is also an artist herself, working in mediums ranging from water color to tapestry weaving.
Her weaving, in particular, demonstrates how, when using materials gathered from the nature of the area, a piece of is connected to the land of which it was created from. Instead of going to a store and buying wool in which to weave with, she goes and collects raw wool from the sheep of a farm in a neighboring town. She then washes the wool, dyes it with "New Englandy Colors", as she puts it, and spins the wool into yarn. From the yarn, she weaves tapestries inspired by the natural landscape and wildlife of the area. For her, her pieces of art are not representative of the area because of the images depicted, rather she feels that there is a stronger unity between the piece and the land when the materials are truly from the land. I find it interesting to find a technique my mother has used in her artistic methodology found to be the same as those in a culture located half way around the world.