Switching Lanes - Cheryl

May 28

I am fascinated by the journeys of women who leave a professional life to honour their creative side. It takes courage and a leap of faith to acknowledge that inner prompting to change the course of ones life and start something new.

I met Sarah Pryke of FRAGMENTS OF AFRICA , a mosaic artist, in a coffee shop near her home studio in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. She had just returned from completing an installation in an exclusive high-end upmarket bush camp in Botswana. It was in the middle of a large open room that wrapped around a 26 foot by 3 1/2 foot curved bar. The mosaic depicted colourful wildlife of the area.

Her story had me riveted as we sipped our coffee and I watched her face light up with enthusiasm as she spoke of her journey from Academia to a full time Mosaic Artist!

The Kruger National park in South Africa had been her backyard growing up. They lived so close to wild nature that her mother made the children be indoors by 5 pm every night to protect them from the lions and other predators.

Her love of nature led to a career in Biology and Behavioural Ecology. She worked in Sweden and Australia before making her courageous leap from scientist to artist.

Sarah had instinctively developed an accuracy in depicting animals from her previous studies at university. She already knew the ecological context from observing them in the wild growing up, and was familiar with their habits and habitats. You can clearly see it reflected in her work. It is so realistic that the ground squirrels near the installation kept investigating the red flowers in the scene trying to find the opening to suck the sweet nectar.

Her depictions not only resonate with people who are familiar with the wild life, but also the local monkeys who hang about her studio and frequently come in to steal the flowers that came out of the kiln, but then quickly spat them out when they bit glass!

Rather than the big game clearly seen around bush camp, Sarah had purposely chosen lesser known animals for her art work. The dung beetle was busy rolling elephant dung into a balls. Here eggs could be laid, with hatchlings surrounded by nutritious food before the remainder of the dung was scattered as fertiliser for plants to grow and feed the grazers before they became prey for the predators. The cycle of life was all there telling the story. Life in Delta from the smallest to the largest creature, all had their part to play.

I was particularly impressed by the description of the leopard whom she portrayed as sipping water while vigilantly watching the scene around it. It was situated at the right hand edge of the mosaic for a reason.

“The leopard is a predator,” she said, “so I did not want to make people feel uneasy by placing the leopard near birds or other animals in the middle of the mosaic.”

The benign posture of drinking also helped eased the tension of this scene.

“It is not that I set out to become a mosaic artist.” she tells me, “It just sort of happened when I made things and people bought them, and so it continues.”

Here was the gem of information I was looking for! She just began and things took off from there. Her experience from one part of her life flowed into another in an entirely different way. A great example of do what you love and the rest will follow.

From Assistant Professor to Mosaic Artist is quite a leap, but one that Sarah certainly does not regret, as her life researching animals and their behaviours now expresses itself in an entirely new way and she loves it!

There is always a financial risk when leaving a career to become a full time artist, but it is often a quality of life issue that becomes the most important driver to make the change.

Sarah knew a change was needed in her life, but did not know what. She started making mosaics because she enjoyed it and was good at it. Things took off from there and now she leads a very different life.

Sarah Pryke: fragmentsofafrica.co.za

Cónan Kilcoyne

Switching Lanes - Cheryl

How it all got started - Cheryl