African Canoe Sculpture

Hi fellow canoe people
I was delighted to stumble across your organization on the internet. I am a British artist living and working on the coast of Kenya. For the last five years I have been creating sculpture out of the remnants of seagoing dugouts.
I have a collection of boats in various stages of decay and one enormous 30 plus foot dugout from Pemba in Tanzania.

My interest in these boats is mostly artist and romantic am not really a technical person as such but I am also interested in doing research in to the amazing variety of canoes to be found in Africa both on the lakes and rivers as well as the seas, ultimately I would like to be involved with putting an exhibition of dugouts on in Europe or the States with an accompanying catalogue.

I believe these canoes are potent symbols of a natural organic culture which is under threat, the trees that they are made of are also under threat. They are also a major and completely neglected part of African and global culture.

Have a look at my website - which is about my art - not a history of canoes in itself - http://edcross.net/ would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in preserving and celebrating these wonderful boats.

All the best

ED