It takes much to fill a canvas for this 42-year-old Malagasy painter and plastic artist.

Much of intoxicating color, much conviction for Malagasy cultural values that are increasingly overlooked; much strength to struggle and denounce through art what goes wrong in society, the taboos in traditional culture; much respect and admiration for women—Yasmine's artworks have so much to say that it is difficult to stand before them without wanting to uncover their hidden meaning.

Symbolized by a zebu head, the artist's signature speaks volumes: if she has a cause to defend, it is that of the feminine gender, hence her choice to adopt the Volavita, a female zebu variety, as her artistic mark.

She loves interpreting through her works the powers of women as well as their suffering. Beyond the Volavita zebu, the water buckets found on her canvases also embody woman in her power to give birth, the bucket taking the form of a pregnant woman, able to carry water much like a woman carrying a baby in her womb; or to speak for the young peasant girl who, constrained by traditional taboos against discussing sexuality between parents and children, finds herself disoriented, left to her own devices and thus tastes the forbidden fruit too young, only to realize later that she has entered an endless dark tunnel.

From one canvas to another, one can also glimpse many cultural symbols such as an aloalo (a totem), an ancestral tomb, a wagon wheel meant to remind us that the wheel turns, that at times we reach the peak of success and at others we touch bottom; or even a "tamboho gasy" or traditional wall through which the artist wishes to express that, much like this wall, though it may appear simple and broken, it represents resilience, longevity. According to Yasmine, Malagasy culture should, contrary to its current state, resist and stand immortally like this wall.

An engaged woman, Yasmine offers plastic arts strengthening classes at the NGO Ketsa in Vontovorona, a center that provides academic reinforcement for children from low-income families in the Vontovorona area and surrounding regions, offering them various subjects including computer science and artistic activities that also include circus with the Aléas des Possible troupe, dance, and theater.

Artistic activities take place every Monday during the school year, with the same concept for all artistic instructors: child development, self-esteem, and the development of creative potential in children.

Beyond the one-off events where Yasmine Fidimalala's talent is displayed on the walls of a hotel, art gallery, or open space, an artistic detour to her studio, christened "zaridaina miafina" or secret garden nestled in the heart of the Ambohimirary neighborhood in the city of Antananarivo can be arranged upon request of our curious, passionate, or artistically inclined travelers, or simply those who wish to blend art into their journey.

Olive Ramarozatovo