Welcome to www.LeoAfricanus.net This web-site -- like the African continent, its many peoples and the world of which they are a part -- is a complex of evolving processes. The site is born from the premise that objects that emerge from the African continent are messengers of meaning.   When viewed and explored with a desire to see them as the products and expressions of varied human experiences and environments, the objects provide a starting point to know the people, places, histories and societies through which they have journeyed thus far and ourselves.   While the objects may indeed be appreciated as fine works of "art," , they also bear the traces of hands, lives, ideas, societies, cultures, religions, histories...of infinitely evolving and continuously emerging realities.  The consideration of objects, which are the visual centerpiece of this site, offers countless opportunities to join the lives of those who view them now with the lives of those who have touched -- or been touched by -- them before.  Every piece of wood, metal, ceramic,  fiber, pigment, stone has passed through many hands and been seen (or avoided) by many eyes -- those of the carver, caster, weaver, potter, sculptor, diviner who created them;  men, women and children who have lived in their presence;  individuals who have revered, feared, danced, held, bought, sold, transported them... ... so that the objects presented here have come to "speak" of realities past, present and future.  To hear and see, one must listen and look, think and feel.  I hope this presentation of objects will provide you with an opportunity to envision and contemplate places and peoples and means of expression, to recognize the common human wonder that yields varied interpretations and expressions of the universe in which we all live.  As you view the objects, remember that each object is somehow linked to other lives in other places at this time or another.   "African Art," as a concept, may be delimited by geography.  But as a reality, its many expressions transcend the continent, reflecting culturally and historically specific movements of the broader universal, human endeavor to find and express meaning while drawing from -- and inscribing ourselves upon -- the environments in which we live.  Like life itself, this endeavor is vast and daunting.   There is so much to see, hear, identify, connect and express and an ever-expanding range of media with and through which to express.   I hope in time that this site will evolve into a broadly inclusive forum of traditional and contemporary "African arts" through which to launch many journeys to deeper understanding, wider recognition and greater compassion.   Lee Rubinstein (a.k.a Leo Africanus)