Tag: #spirituality

God Egg

A title? A work in…pencil?! It’s powerful and rare to feel successful in newness, so I’m going to revel just a little.

god egg

A mechanical pencil isn’t too different from a pen, not until you start trying to draw and the line feels totally wrong at first.

I had to figure out a way to work with something thinner but also softer, while being varying in tone based on pressure. With a pen, being bold feels easier and the directness of the ink worked to make the art I feel represents me.

With a pencil, being bold needed to be more decisive. I attempted to escape the “refined” details such thin lead is good at producing, but that couldn’t be further from what I’m like. However, mixing thick lines with thinner details changed my way of thinking about creation.

“God Egg” is my own heart’s creation and using the new medium made me feel stronger about my work. This newness has turned bountiful.

 

Carpet lore

Islamic art has been a part of my life since I was a baby and I crawled around my mom’s prayer mat. It continued when I visited the Kaabah in Makkah as a child, and continues now whenever I gaze at the characters in a Qur’an peppered with floral motifs.

Art is a big part of my spiritual practice. Below is a drawing I made when I felt inspired by the majestic carpets I’ve seen all my life – from Turkey, India, Pakistan, Kashmir, Eastern Europe (Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, etc), Iran, etc.

RB 2018-02-01 13.16.49

 

Recently (a couple of months ago) I got to visit an exquisite exhibit on carpets and motifs present in them over the centuries. I realised that, unconsciously, I had truly been referencing a lot of shapes and patterns from carpets.

My heritage is showing! Without even knowing it, I am passing down the meaningful shapes of those who came before me.

The Monster of Science

RB 2018-02-20 13.02.14

Behold one of my more recent creations! She is the embodiment of the knowledge one gains through vigorous testing.

I kind of think of her as a monster. If I am to be honest, she’s more of a way for me to say “yes, I do love these aspects of existence” – the so-called ‘logical’; the blueprint we’re attempting to create for Life through experimentation.

She is like a net of concepts held together by both strong and weak connections. I really enjoyed drawing her.

 

Foresty

You know me by now, at least a little bit. I’m very much inspired by nature.

Nature provides more than food, or space, or fresh air. To many, it provides inner peace. I’m happy for those people.

However, what I have always felt (as someone with severe ADD whose mind is running all the time, all the time, all the time…) is that nature is so full of detail that it does not bring me any peace.

And I love it.

RB 2018-02-20 12.48.18

My father’s favourite place is the Morton Arboretum, in Illinois. He’s taken the family there since my sisters and I were children. I thank him for the gift of those memories.

I never want to forget the impact trees and their world have had on me, even more than an exact picture or a piece of the forest. So I draw those feelings over, and over, and over.

 

 

Dubaipsidedown

Sometimes I do draw things with a thing in mind, or I start drawing something and it sets me on a path. I love these drawings as much as the stuff that flows unconsciously from me. It’s a little more like a mural, or a passage in a book, so easier for others to read, but no different in terms of ease for me to draw.

dubaipsidedown

This is an emotional landscape drawing I made of Dubai.