The Jingle Mask
Few cultures are as rich in masks and the idea of masking as the African cultures. The idea of covering one’s humanity with the idea of another permeates just about every cultural area in the African belief systems. Teachers, healers, Shamans, evil, goodness, protectors and many forms of deities can be found represented in mask form.
The design of “The Jingle Mask” was influenced by the ‘min’ or spirit masks of the female Bundu society of the Mendi-Temne of Sierra
Leone region of north Africa. I particularly liked the idea that the wooden medium chosen for the original masks retained it’s wooden look; the fact that the mask was made of wood contributed to the character of the mask. In creating my mask, I also choose to have the glass be visually represented in the character of the mask. The bottom layer of glass was painted and rubbed to allow the character of the glass to become a part of the character of the mask.
As with all of my masks, there was a porcelain face created over which the fused and painted glass mask was formed.