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Dewa Gede Alit

The artistry of Dewa Gede Alit has been featured in the Chicago Tribune.

Born on the island of Bali in 1954, Dewa Gede Alit is an artist impassioned by village life. He hails from a community caressed by cool, fresh air, where clove trees grow abundantly. During the harvest, the price of cloves is rather expensive, but there is a season when the price drops and growers suffer from this decline. The creation of clove items, such as boxes, baskets, serving trays, and candleholders, allows the clove market to achieve a certain level of consistency, benefiting the villagers.

In 1994 Alit led a group of farmers from his village to an exhibition of clove works at the Agribusiness and Agriculture Department in Jakarta. When he has time, he trains the younger generation in how to make basketry. He hopes that through his endeavors he can provide a better life for his children until they enter university.

Says Alit, "Creating beautiful handmade gifts provides me material and immaterial satisfaction, by supporting my family, and at the same time helping me provide work for others to do the same. Materially I can support my family in this expensive and hard life while immaterially I feel happy to be able to help people in my neighborhood earn extra money for their family."