At the Crossroads
Afro-Cuban Orisha Arts in Miami
ORISHA ARTISTS
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Historical Museum of Southern Florida Orisha Artists
At the Crossroads ORISHA ARTISTS |
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Collections
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Artists play an essential role in the Orisha community in Miami, where they cater to divine as well as human tastes. Beadworkers, tailors/seamstresses, metalworkers, woodcarvers, and other artists must be well versed in the aesthetic preferences of the individual orishas whom they serve. Gratifying an orisha is an extremely important consideration, since an orisha’s pleasure or displeasure with an artwork can have divine influence on the artist’s prosperity in the community. An orisha could “close the roads” for the artist! At the same time, the artist must create an item that is aesthetically pleasing both to the olorisha (priest/priestess) who commissioned it and to the community who will frequently see it during ceremonial gatherings. Like the orishas, the community is influential in spreading the word about the artist’s expertise and grace, or lack thereof. The community, too, can be influential in “closing roads,” if it does not find an artwork appealing and worthy of the orisha for whom it was created.
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