- Title: Enter the house with a hundred faces in Egypt
- Date: 21st January 2021
- Summary: CAIRO, EGYPT (RECENT) (REUTERS) SCULPTURES CREATED BY EGYPTIAN ARTIST, FADI FRANCIS, SEEN ON DISPLAY / FRANCIS LOOKING AT STATUE WITH MAGNIFYING GLASS IN BACKGROUND FRANCIS CHECKING OUT SCULPTURE OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN KING RAMSES II, AS SEEN THROUGH MAGNIFYING GLASS FRANCIS WORKING ON SCULPTURE MORE OF SCULPTURES ON TABLE / FRANCIS WORKING IN BACKGROUND SCULPTURE OF POPE FRANCIS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ARTIST, FADI FRANCIS, SAYING: "I'm Fadi Francis, a journalist, and artist. I started with art when I was around 3-years-old. I drew then, I was living in Luxor. Being there really impacted me because I loved monuments and arts, this really affected my personality and in liking the art of drawing. Later on, in 2018, by mere chance, I started making forms from the white ceramic paste and discovered I have a talent in sculpting." FRANCIS USING HIS HANDS TO SHAPE PASTE FRANCIS USING OUTIL TO SHAPE PASTE FRANCIS, WEARING FACE MASK, WORKING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ARTIST, FADI FRANCIS, SAYING: "This really encouraged me to develop myself and learn new forms of art. I started watching videos, I started studying and reading about sculpting and decided to focus on thermal clay. In late 2018, I started my project of (creating) 100 personalities using thermal clay. This is a very big project which I started two years ago. I chose personalities from around the world." VARIOUS OF SCULPTURES ON DISPLAY VARIOUS OF FRANCIS WORKING ON SCULPTURE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ARTIST, FADI FRANCIS, SAYING: "I was very keen when choosing the characters, so they were from countries all over the world. You will find personalities from Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. This diversity is very important for me because the project is about 100 international personalities. It is also important that they work in different fields, there are artists, football players, actors. I was keen to have this diversity. Some of these personalities also spread peace in the world." SCULPTURES OF QUEEN ELIZABETH II AND POPE FRANCIS SCULPTURE OF DIEGO MARADONA MORE SCULPTURES ON DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ARTIST, FADI FRANCIS, SAYING: "The coronavirus period may have been a difficult period for the world, but as an artist, on the contrary, I benefited a lot during that time. I developed my art and I studied new techniques whether in sculpting or drawing." FRANCIS WORKING SCULPTURE OF A MUMMY SCULPTURES / FRANCIS WORKING IN BACKGROUND MORE OF SCULPTURES ON DISPLAY SCULPTURE OF STEVE JOBS / FRANCIS WORKING IN BACKGROUND MORE SCULPTURES ON DISPLAY FRANCIS LOOKING ON AMONG SCULPTURES
- Embargoed: 4th February 2021 10:11
- Keywords: Art Dolls Famous Personalities Ghandi Queen Elizabeth Ramses II Sculptures
- Location: CAIRO, EGYPT
- City: CAIRO, EGYPT
- Country: Egypt
- Topics: Art,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Middle East
- Reuters ID: LVA001DW5CWGN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Walking into this Egyptian artist's home comes with a greeting from Britain's Queen Elizabeth and the mummy of ancient Egyptian King Ramses II.
The two international personalities along with dozens of others make up sculptures that Fadi Francis has on display in his downtown Cairo home, a hobby he has been perfecting for two years.
Francis uses thermal clay to carve and colour in every minute detail of some who have become celebrity icons including Nelson Mandella, Gandhi, Diego Maradona, Steve Jobs, and others.
So far, the 29-year-old artist finished 82 sculptures. He is planning to finish his full collection of 100 sculptures of influential personalities in two months and hopes to exhibit them later.
Francis was born in the southern city of Luxor and was raised by his artist mother and Egyptologist father, who both nurtured his love for art and photography.
His passion for painting started when he was only 3. He studied fine arts on his own besides his work as a journalist when he moved to Cairo in 2008.
(Production: Sherif Fahmy, Seham Eloraby, Mai Shams El-Din) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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