I chose the African piece Love Cocoon by Wiz Kudowor.  I couldn’t find the date for this piece.  Kudowor is a contemporary artist from Ghana.  He studied at the College of Art , University of Science and Technology in Ghana where he graduated with a degree in fine art.  Many of his pieces are displayed around Ghana, including a mural at Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park (source). 

 Love Cocoon depicts a mother tightly holding a child.  I like this picture because it is very serene.  There is just a sense of peace that comes from this painting, in the color palette and the eased, happy face of the baby.  I also like how there is a globe in what looks like an elongation of the mother’s arm.  The globe likely represents the world— the mother is holding the whole world in her arms along with the baby.  I also think the general shape of the mother-baby complex makes a heart-like shape—just another way to represent all the love in this photograph.

 I like looking at African art, a lot of it is colorful and bright.  I like that African artists incorporate a lot of nature in all their artwork.  I also like how African art is so different than styles from Europe and the United States.  It is easy to see that African art developed independently into something new, unique but still equally beautiful. 

Kudowor says he had a difficult time painting outside of the African art confines, such as ritualistic paintings, until he was able to view art pieces from other places in the world.  He then learned how to paint as a human being first and an African second (source).  This separation, likely, is what makes his pieces so popular around the world because, as much as we may try to deny it, European art and art from the United States has impacted us our whole lives.  Even if we do not know anything about art pieces or art history, there are still paintings that we could list without even trying; the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, Starry Night, etc.  These paintings have, subconsciously, made an impact to how we define art and it takes a lot of trying and understanding to fully appreciate artwork atypical to our culture.