It makes me feel a little bit guilty to admit this but, for the most part, I’ve enjoyed lockdown. I’m acutely aware of the suffering of others, and like everyone else I’ve been affected by the collective stress of living through a pandemic, but I’ve been fortunate enough to stay healthy and present enough to allow creativity to blossom.
I’ve managed to write the first draft of a book about the words that have had an impact on me at different stages of my life, as well as several blogs and posts about the language of the pandemic.
So, when an artist friend of mine, Furrah Syed, invited me to participate in a creative lockdown project, I jumped at the chance. She sent me one of her paintings and asked me to respond to it in writing. Then she asked me to send her a piece of my writing, which she would respond to with a painting.
As someone who has always been able to express myself in words, but rarely in any other medium, this was an exciting and fascinating challenge, as well as an opportunity to participate in a project intended to create connection between creatives and artistic nourishment during a difficult time.
I had an instinctive, immediate reaction to her painting, called Darian. It emerged at the beginning of June, when the Black Lives Matter protests started to spread around the world. It only occurred to me in hindsight that you could read that energy into my short piece of prose, entitled A Soundless Howl. Read it and see the painting I was responding to here.
For the second part of the process, I decided to send Furrah an excerpt from my book, a piece I had written about a word that holds deep meaning for me, which for the purposes of the project I called On Surrender.
Within a day or so, she sent me her response in the form of a painting. What a privilege to have an artist interpret my words. I never anticipated that happening!
In the accompanying notes, Furrah explained: “I wanted to create a background of yellow (our existence) then two flows, one representing your energy (green and blue; colours of life) and the other the guidance from above/God (yellow, red and gold).
“I had a very strong image of surrender being depicted as the darkest colour; black. I wanted there to be solid and very stark shapes taking centre stage but with variations; some stop the flow of your journey in life, some allow more or less of you to proceed towards the guidance of God.
“This piece is unlike anything I have created before, but I feel it honestly (from my own perspective) represents your words and sentiments.”
Wow…
I gave myself some time to absorb the finished artwork, and it rewarded me with several layers of meaning.
I told Furrah: “The piece had a powerful, instant impact on me, and I really felt the energy you have described in your notes. It was only when I came back to it a day later that I saw another layer, which is strongly connected to the stark black shapes.
“I have studied different forms of energy medicine for several years and it dawned on me that I was looking at a visual representation of the samskaras that block the flow in our energy field when we suppress emotion. So, it really does have a remarkable resonance on many levels.”
An extraordinary experience, but that wasn’t the end of it. Furrah wrote back to say: “I am excited to share with you that something different happened with your prose. After completing the painting which you have seen, I was visualising further, quite stark, images in response to On Surrender, and it led me to start an additional painting. I have nearly finished it and will share it with you as soon as it’s done. This has not happened with the other participants in this project and it has been an additional gift, for which I am so grateful. What a journey so far!”
Double wow.
After a couple more days, I received another email from Furrah: “I’m excited to share with you the second painting in response to On Surrender. This time I went in a different direction keeping to the same representations in colours as before but this time I focused on a large vortex, which I felt depicted a journey in life.
“There are strong images of wonderful positives with the blue and green, the prominent metallic pink represents the heart. Surrender is prominent within the heart and in the upper areas of the vortex.
“Gold shards nestled in heavy textures within and around the vortex keep guiding and supporting one towards a beautiful journey.”
This painting had a very different energy to the first, but it still resonated with me in a surprisingly visceral way.
It’s as if Furrah had connected to the meaning behind my words, the underlying story, and had interpreted that with colour and brushstrokes.
In a way, my words and her paintings have captured a moment in time when we have been forced inwards to reflect on who we are, where we have been, where we are now, and where we would like to go.
What if lockdown could be the key to our liberation? Whatever the deeper meaning of this global event, on a personal level it has given me the opportunity to practise surrendering to what is – and now I have beautiful visual aids to help me.
To find out more about Furrah’s project and the other contributors go to www.furrahsyedart.com/art-meets-poetry/
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