SMAP 154 - An Ancient And Special Art Form

Hello Feathered Friends Community. Great to be back here in this challenge, the Show Me A Picture or SMAP Round 154, hosted by @nelinoeva. The link to the contest post can be found here. Simply click on it and hopefully you can join in the fun.

The theme for this week is:

FREE THEME

There is an art exhibit ongoing now at a famous art gallery in our city. You know, the nicest thing about these exhibits, at least for me, is the anticipation of discovering something unique that stands out among all the objet d'art on display and actually finding it. This one did not disappoint. The photo below shows this.

At first glance, these white round objects look like white balloons or globes or even round table lamps with artistic designs. A closer look reveals an art form, which I just found out, have been uncovered as far back as 5,000 years ago. In fact the British Museum has on display this particular art dating back to that date. The art? Painted Ostrich Eggs.

I was surprised and actually exhilarated when I noticed that the subject of the artist for painting on the ostrich eggs is none other than the national bird of our country, the Philippine Eagle.

I have, in earlier posts, featured various art forms of the Philippine Eagle (which replaced the Red Munia as the Philippines' national bird) during SMAP Free Themes. This is because I do not have an actual photo of the real one. And now, SMAP is again on Free Theme mode and I discover a unique art form of which the subject is a Feathered Friend, and a favorite of mine as well. Irish luck as they say. Perfect timing!

There was one thing that bothered me though. I was wondering where the artist got the eggs she used as her medium. It's not like you get to see ostrich eggs on display at the regular supermarkets around town. I did some research and found out that there is an outfit here in our city that sells this. It's called Davao Farmville and has an FB page. Photo below is a screenshot of one of its Facebook posts.

So that's one question answered. The other thing that had me wondering are these photos below.

The first one shows an eagle with a plastic rope, we call this "tie back" here, wrapped around its beak. The second shows a very sad eagle that looks like it's about to cry. I finally deduced that since the Philippine Eagle is an endangered specie, the artist wanted to depict its current state by one, showing it muzzled out which symbolizes captivity and two, their sad fate that they are still being hunted down despite the government's efforts to stop it.

Well anyway, since I was not able to talk to the artist my explanations above are just my interpretation of her art. And they are expensive at Philippine Peso 30,000 or about US Dollar 600 apiece. I would like to buy one. Would you?

For my entry I am submitting the photo below.

And that's it folks. I hope you enjoyed the show which I really did. Wishing you all a blessed and safe week. Until the next one.