After two years studying economics at The University of Douala in Cameroon, Jean Michel Dissake felt it wasn’t the path for him. Dissake left the university and journeyed into a sacred forest in Cameroon, where he would then live for the next 10 years.
"(Jean was) learning from nature, interacting with the trees, and the river, and the light, and the animals," said Marriott Sheldon, a friend of Dissake's and fellow North Carolinian artist.
Her and Dissake met in 2017, at an exhibit at the Cameron Gallery and clicked from the start.
“Our philosophies are very aligned, about art and about nature,” Sheldon said.
In the forest, Dissake began creating his art — he had been drawing since the age of 8, but in the forest is where he began to make sculptures. He mixed vines with any material he could find, and he created his first sculptures.
“When I went to the sacred forest, it was like the vine shared vibrations from the small trees to the big trees,” Dissake said.
He felt there was connection between how a forest interacts with itself and how the human body interacts with itself.
“If we travel around the veins and nerves, I think we will arrive to the source humanity where there is not limit, where there is only love and there is only peace,” Dissake said.
Dissake said his specific sculpture style attempts to link technology and nature. In order to achieve this goal, Dissake uses a diverse set of materials which Sheldon said ranged from termite dust to license plates.
