Different Snakes

Title: Different Snakes
Medium: Six colour lithograph
Size: 38 x 50 cm
Edition size: 40

Thama Kase was born in 1971 on the farm Makriel in the Ghanzi District of Botswana. He joined the Kuru Art Project in 1992 when his large swirling compositions and unusual colour combinations were met with great enthusiasm by art collectors. Thama Kase enjoys combining well-known animals with ones that he has conjured up. He comments that these caricatures of animals stem from his childhood memories of hunting trips with his father. For a small boy, the animals they encountered were enormous and frightening. In his dreams, they became the creatures he now likes to depict as comical fantasy characters. "Why do I always have to make the serious things? Why should I not make people laugh? Anyhow, I think people love the fun in my art."

Apart from the fun, he also has a serious side. He has great respect for his culture and traditions. He gives serious attention to the advice the elders give him. " The old people tell me where to go with my art and with everything I do." Kase sometimes depicts the stories he has had heard from them. They have told him to cherish his art, to hold onto it so that he can leave something about himself and his character for his children.

Kase enjoys playing the guitar and is interested in the traditional music and dance of his people. He has vivid childhood memories of hunting trips with his father and grandfather and since he can remember traditional hunting methods and weapons have fascinated him. For him, these things are more important than the modern-day technology, like motorcars, radios etc. Even so, he admits that he loves his radio and the music it produces.