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The deep maroon spiral sitting inside the elephant-like creature's body reads as the literal potter's wheel, its rings, plus the small red fish swimming beside it, positioned right where the animal's belly would be, as if the wheel is the generative center of the whole beast rather than a separate object.
Vessels recur everywhere around it to back that reading: cupped hands holding leaves, a golden pot growing a plant, another pot cradling an anchor, and on the right a tower-like structure built almost like stacked pottery, its arched windows resembling kiln doors. The elephant's own curling purple trunk mirrors the spiral's turn, tying the animal's form to the wheel's motion - the whole creature seems to be caught mid-throw, still being shaped rather than finished.
Down in the lower right, a set of scales and a huddle of orange-and-blue figures (one with raised hands, feet bare) sit apart from the main spiral, maybe representing the maker or the weighing of what gets made versus what's discarded.
Born in 1974 in Mumias, western Kenya, Erick Sande trained as a graphic designer at The Kenya Polytechnic before turning to painting, exhibiting early work at the Kenya National Museum Gallery. A 1995 meeting with Ruth Schaffner, founder of Gallery Watatu, launched his career in Nairobi’s art community. His early work drew on Abaluyia tradition and myth; it has since broadened toward multiculturalism, patriotism, and the athleticism of Kenyans as a unifying national force. Working across media in a style of continual fusion & experimentation, Sande has exhibited solo and in groups at multiple venues. His illustrations appear in the poetry collection Makonde by Joan Sikand. He lives & works in Nairobi.
