The Other Women...

I have been trying to capture the women of Sefrou in my sketches over the last month or so and mainly I have been focusing on the traditional dress versus the many western attire I see here in the Fes/Sefrou region. I do not wish to miss lead anyone into thinking all the women dress in the caftan... I just happen to find these women much more interesting to sketch. Also I live in a very conservative section of Sefrou (religious) and I would not wish to cause a stir by sketching the women in public... I try my best to be discrete when I draw people as it is part of the religion not to make representation of the human form... most people when they see my work never say anything beyond praise... but as i said I live in an area that is pretty conservative (from what i have been told) and it would be my luck to run into the one man who finds my work offensive.

As I mentioned most women here are still covered from head to toe... yet many wear the caftan so tight that every curve of the body is defined, or they wear 4" spiked high-heels that my women friends back in the States refer to as "CFM" shoes.... I will not explain, if you dont know then find out what it means. It is the juxipostion of being covered up yet still dressing to show they woman and he beauty that is in all woman... Then there is the in between... half-western, half-traditional... head scarf and tight jeans or sleeveless blouses or head un-covered and the full dress. One thing I have not captured yet is the mind-numbing colors, color combinations and wild designs that make the head spin... That will be my next subject...