Above is my Tapa design. It's looks very simple, but definitely represents quite a few things important to me. In the middle is a cross, symbolizing my pacific culture, Tonga. But the stripes going across it come from the American flag, which is also part of who I am. The 7 stars count the people in my family -The two biggest stars being my parents, and the 5 small stars as me and my siblings. The stars repeat and creates a pattern through out my Tapa like the bear icon, which is very common in most designs. I'm a Virgo (Zodiac), and the bear is my animal sign. The basic layout of my Tapa (the two boarders and the 9 squares covering the face) come from many other designs as well.
In this activity we looked at a Samoan artist who lives in New Zealand, named Fatu Feu'u. He is a great artist, known for creating paintings, sculptures, pottery, prints, and glass work. His work is influenced by traditional Tapa cloth patterns, tattoo's, weavings, carvings, and mask designs. But a lot of pacific cultures have their own version of "Tapa", and we looked more into this by visiting a few sites. The task was to create our very own Tapa design, whether it be on paper or online! You can read more about what I created above. I really enjoyed this activity because I get to use and show off my digital art skills again, but I also really like how mine turned out.
Well done again Victoria - Tapa cloth (or simply tapa) is a barkcloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii (where it is called kapa).
ReplyDeleteHi Victoria!,
ReplyDeleteWow! What an awesome and interesting tapa you have designed. I have enjoyed reading about what each design represents. You have put a lot of creativity into your tapa designs, which is great. Would you like to create a tapa design again?
Good Job!
Hi Victoria,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you put lots of effort into your bear, and the star constellation. Although, I did find it interesting that you added the bear because of your animal sign. Was this hard to create?