A clash. A bloody battle. The tribes are at each other in the battle
of Poike Ditch. Immigrants on Easter Island of descendants long
times passed. The Long Ears who stretched their lobes to their pupiks
and back. And the Short Ears who were subjugated to be slaves to
their floppy lobed masters. And then came the rebellion. And the
Short Ears drove the Long Ears into a wall of fire where all but one
perished.
And from this turmoil… as from most turmoils… myths arose. Easter
Island myths accompanied by diabolical rituals… and even more
diabolical figures. I shall show you four of these charming little
chaps. Little statuettes made with charming grace embodying evil
incarnate. I have a name for only two of the four. Bottom left is
Moai Kavakava depicting a rotting ancestral corpse and bottom
right… Moai Paapaa representing the spirit of a woman. The other
two grimacing creatures are supposedly models for tattoos.
During feasts and other celebrations indigenes wore as many as twenty
of these little creatures on their bodies and they cavorted and
whirled in frenzied chaos to the thunderous rhythms of arcane sounds.
I say with reasonable certainty that they weren’t dancing to fiddles.
Ah… but I have more. There’s the ne plus ultra of artistic
achievement. Who is the greater talent? The one who creates a complex
work of beauty filled with color and mood using the most modern of
tools and who evokes swelling emotions in all who view his work?..or
is the one who works in a squalid environment–bare- chested with
only daylight to guide his hand–and uses only the most primitive of
tools to create his vision.
I digress for an instant to bring up a science fiction story I read
a thousand years ago about a similar contest held by a universal
entity judging the most talented musicians in all the neighboring
galaxies. The winner was a primitive who had a single stringed
instrument and plunked out only one note… for he did the most with
what he had.
I don’t know about your workspaces and workbenches. I consider mine
rather complete and sophisticated. But I would never dare to compare
my work to that of the carver on Easter Island who produces with what
he has the images you are about to see… as well as the carver at
work. That said… go… go now… go quick… and look… and see…
and tell me what you think.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at http://www.tyler-adam.com where you
will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that
says Current Tidbits… and you will see represented on our pages a
carver on Easter Island doing his thing.
And there ya have it.
That’s it for this week folks.
Catch you all next week.
Benjamin Mark