"Yennenga, Warrior Princess of Burkina Faso"
LIN CROWLEY FINE ART I HAVE SPENT many years traveling t li with ith my husband during his military career. We have now retired in Georgia to begin a new chapter in our lives. Though we’re beginning this new endeavor, it still includes my love of painting. This passion for art began as a child when my father drew a simple square on a sheet of paper. After this, he put a few lines on it, and the square became something that had dimensions (of course, as a 6 or 7 year old, I didn’t know the word “dimension”). In my head I said, “it’s a real see-thru box”! And that began my journey to make things on paper look real. There are so many ordinary and beautiful things that inspire me to paint, as well as things that are not considered beautiful, but still make great paintings. So that gives me a wide variety of things to choose from. I love florals, wildlife, old buildings, landscapes, and I’ve now come to love painting children and the wizened faces of our exquisite and graceful elders. As an African American, I have always wanted to know from which country in Africa my ancestors were taken. With a little research, I was able to do just that. I have found out that I am mostly of Nigerian descent. It was very exciting to know from 109
September-October 2021
where I come because I’ve always known that my people didn’t just pop up on a slave plantation. Because I’m so excited about my origins, I B have been reading about lots of African historical figures. One such notable figure is the history of Princess Yennenga, the mother of the Mossi people of Burkina Faso. I was so moved by her story that it compelled me to do a painting of her. I had no idea as to how she looked, so I took a lot of artistic license in making my own image of her. I read that she was extremely brave and was an exceedingly beautiful young girl. Right away I knew I would use my daughter as the model for this painting, because I consider my daughter to be my little beauty. It is written that because Princess Yennenga was so proficient with spears and riding horses, she was widely known as a skilled warrior. Her father even gave her command of her own battalion. This is certainly someone I wanted to paint. There are more African historical figures I’d like to put on my drawing board, I just need to decide who is next. To view the Lin Crowley Gallery and to place an order, please visit www.lincrowley.com or send an email inquiry to: lin@lincrowley.com. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yennenga DAWN
www.africabusinessassociation.org
