Partly Paralysed. But

He’s An Artist

New Zealand, Fiji View Work of Discharged Leper

From Jim Shortall, in Suva A partly paralysed Fijian artist who might become as well known as the late Australian aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira was to have some of his work displayed in Wellington, NZ, in June, and the Suva public was seeing some of it for the first time, too, in May.

PATIENT at Makogai leper L settlement for two periods of five and ten years respectively,

and now living at St. Elizabeth s home for discharged leper patients at Suva, the artist is Semisi Naivakasoro, of Korovou.

Through the encouragement of Mr A. R. Stone, a well known Suva artist, Semisi started to paint four years ago after coming to the re habilitation centre, which is run by the Sisters of Mercy.

He has developed great skill in poster-colours, oils, and to a lesser extent in charcoal drawings. Almost all of his work so far is in land scapes but he is now going to turn his attention to portraits as well.

Uses Forearm Semisi’s hands are partly paralysed, preventing him from holding brushes in the ordinary way, but this is no obstacle to his work. With the use of the side of his hand, his knuckles, and a discarded plastic spatula from a glue-pot he demonstrated his

technique in poster-colours to me, executing a beautiful coastal scene in a matter of a few minutes.

A dripping wet sheet of glossy art paper was spread on a wet metal bench An assistant placed two blobs of paint of different colours on the bench alongside, and Semisi went to work first with the side of his hand and forearm, spreading the paint on the paper. Then with a few deft touches of the spatula and his knuckles and without the use of a brush, the picture took shape with extraordinary speed.

Some of his paintings have been based on photos but many are purely from memory, and are scenes of Makogai Is. or of his home village area. There is no doubt at all that he has extraordinary talent and that his paintings, which have a very distinctive character about them, will be readily saleable if properly promoted.

Fiji Arts Club and Mr. Stone are assisting in publicising Semisi’s work.

The Makogai colony has also pro duced a wood carver—Sven Ortquist, a Samoan, who has been described as a “natural” carver, without arty special training.

He has been using bush timber and ordinary carpenter’s tools until recently when Sir Hugh Ragg, of Suva, presented him with a proper set of carving tools.

The crucifix he carved below has been placed in the Roman Catholic Church on the island. He has also done a lifesized statue of Joseph the Worker.

Semisi (left) gives some close attention to one of his oils. Semisi is a former Makogai patient -but Sven Ortquist (right) is still at Makogai, where he has been winning acclaim as a wood carver. This photo of him was taken by another patient, Charan Singh.

See next page: “A Patient’s View of Makogai”.