Whenever I try to explain to someone the origins of The Maakika I get odd looks. I have no idea why, unless the people I'm explaining this to have no artistic minds and have never known a fevered mind!
However, the story I told on the original Maakika Art site in 2008 is factual. These pieces have been called some of the best work I've done -my comic work getting swiftly dismissed! I'm also told, though I never saw it that way myself until I went through all the pieces again, that the pieces seem to form a type of mythology or at least hint at one. I'll let YOU decide.
The Origins
"What is Maakika Art?" I get asked that a great deal and to be honest it is a very brief story!
In 2006 I had a serious respiratory infection. It came and went but,in 2007,it came back with a vengeance over several months and with complications I thought it would see me shift this mortal coil -and I am NOT joking!
Around May, 2007, it got really bad. Then, suddenly,pouring with sweat, while seated on a bus, my mind started getting a rush of images -maybe 50-60. I got home exhausted but I sat down and began to draw. Honestly, at 50 years of age I had drawn many things but these new images were so out of my usual frame of image reference that I was stumped.
I drew a few, sat back and thought "What the bloody hell have I drawn?!" Almost instantly the word "Maakika" [pronounced "Mah-kee-kah"] came into my head. At the same time I got the definition "solid black and white art under guidance from the Maakika". Ahh, a fevered mind -and no drugs involved!
I've searched the word on the internet, in books and anywhere else I can but it seems not to exist. I cannot find anything similar.
And with each came a title or description.
So,a divine gift from the Maakika pantheon seems credible!
And lucky.
The original images are all 21x29cms and though I've not parted with the first "inspired" drawings which look crude to my eye, several were sold for between £150-£300 each.
I still have the original images in my mind [they won't shift!] but I've been inspired to work on larger images [60x42cms].
So,if you have any questions or comments get in touch!
And remember:only one person does Maakika art -me (and I have absolutely no idea what's coming next!)
The Maakika Art ~ you can buy the book!
Paperback,
A4
32 Pages
Price: £10.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days
According to comments:
J Stransky
"Unique and eye catching. It is equal parts disturbing and wonderful. I've cut a few out and put them in frames on the wall in my work room. They are, I tell you, really quite though provoking. Recommended to someone with an interest in primitive art or hypnosis-state painting. Look at these images deeply for a while, they will seep into your soul."
SMITH
"i said in another post that these make me think of some hinted at mythology. you should do a book of these with just title s to hint at things so we can read them and let our mind run wild!2
GUEST
"I love the way these are all part of some implied story or mythology. Just enough info suggested to make you think about what the story is and let your mind make up all sorts of fabulous things"
Guest
| "Seriously, these are the best things you do and you should concentrate making more or using them as a design project (T-shirts, posters whatever). Clean 'em up just a little and they'd be incredible." Molly Williams "These Maakika pieces are wonderful Terry!! I find them really fascinating." |
I had a similar change of direction - or maybe it was a reassertion of direction - in 1997 whilst sitting in a bus station in Ipswich. "I loathe bus stations. Full of lost souls and lost luggage!" I had a sketch pad with me and had been drawing towards the local pub. bored with that, I changed tack and what came out of that change was something that looked like a Max Ernst. I've continued veering about in that Surrealist area ever since and it has been most freeing and also meditative. At least they unstress me enough so that I can make imagery and the tremors don't bother them quite as much a the requirement for representational accuracy does with that type of drawing. A friend of mine saw the resultant drawings and said that was the real me. I think the Maakika are the real you.
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