With the lockdown, majority of people have taken on a journey of self-discovery. Making the new normal, a feeling long known to artists like myself who are accustomed to living voluntarily quarantined for most of our lives. In this silence, flourishes our creativity.
As the world looks for vaccines and medicines for the Coronavirus, I seek comfort through spiritual expression, building an immune cocoon through art. Within the chrysalis the mind grows, the soul finds direction, as the recluse of quarantine gives an opportunity to develop undistracted. Hope keeps me going and art strengthens the immunity of the mind.
Connecting to one’s own inner strength and consciousness, my works have always had spirituality as their focus, especially my series of geometric abstracts. Through play of colour and lines, I portray the power of self-gathering in order to connect with higher planes of existence. Every once in a while, one sees hints of forms like lotus, a meditative monk in lotus position, or a Sufi whirling in transcendence in these works. I feel that art plays an important spiritual role and artists can not only express but also connect with others at a much deeper and sensitive level.
The lockdown was unable to shake my focus, if anything, it helped strengthen it as I continued my series of works. My works titled Woman the creator, Hope, Transcendence, Healing from within, Dreamworld and Revelation (all made during lockdown) have been selected to be exhibited at international level in various galleries, museums and Zines, both online and offline in UK, Ukraine, New York, North Dakota, Argentina and Canada. And I am working on some more upcoming projects.
These are unprecedented times of uncertainty. United by the pandemic in terms of similar challenges, the world is looking at life with the eyes of an artist today, sensitive, feeling and responding deeply to the five senses. A catharsis is on its way. It does not matter what caused it. What matters is how we come out of it. The journey from a hard shell or womb to a fully grown being has always been a painful and stressful experience, so essential for the outcome. But the light at the end of the tunnel keeps one going. Hope strengthens the will and survival instinct tides one through. We will hopefully emerge much stronger, self-confident and most importantly empathetic beings.
