Sakina, fairy tale princess

New Year’s resolution – I am going to, by hook or by crook, finalise my manuscript (again) and produce the illustrations.  To this end, I will need 3 willing volunteers to “read” my manuscript, i.e. in a literary-critique kind of way.  I will have to (say I with my fist clenched) get this story out before the end of 2012.

 

Recent Works on show now…

Currently at the Persian Arts and Letters Conference

The theme of this year’s conference is Baha’i Faith and Modernity.

“This is a century of life and renewal. Sciences and arts, industry and invention have been reformed. Law and ethics have been reconstituted, reorganized. The world of thought has been regenerated. Sciences of former ages and philosophies of the past are useless today.”

“Religion is the outer expression of the divine reality. Therefore, it must be living, vitalized, moving and progressive. If it be without motion and non progressive, it is without the divine life; it is dead. The divine institutes are continuously active and evolutionary; therefore, the revelation of them must be progressive and continuous.”

- Excerpts from an address given by Abdu’l-Baha at the Free Religious Association in Boston, Massachusetts(24 May 1912)

So honoured that my work will be exhibited for the duration of the Conference, thanks to the organisers!  If you have any questions, please contact me at thisevanescentsoul[at]gmail.com

2011	2010	2011	2011
2009	2009

 

Another unveiled

Detail

 

Seven Deadly Sins – upcoming shows

“I think this is what I am meant to do”…those sweet words spoken by an earthy angel as she accepted to take responsibility for ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ in Ontario, Canada.  As a result of her certitude, the Yaran exhibit will be shown, in combination with Montreal’s musical gems ‘The Hidden Words’, in a number of locations in Eastern Ontario, among them the almost equally miraculous MERA.  Places and Dates TBC.

 

Upcoming exhibition: Southfields Gallery

From September 2-17, catch me with KAOS at Southfields Gallery!

 

More abstract landscapes

I have been experimenting – in rare moments of contemplative calm – with something very different.  The process that goes into these involves three very different activities: concentration on technical how-to, controlled accidents (lots of fun and fast working), and then a final, meditative process by which I rework, enhance, and emphasize the parts that are most evocative.  This one is acrylic and watercolour on paper.

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Recent goings-on

click to see result

‘Seven Deadly Sins’ has been present in a number of events lately, which is after all its raison d’etre (read what Roger White said about art?), even if the location is not the typical white-walled, ‘conventional’ exhibition space – or even a building.

Many people ask me whether these panels are paintings.  I never know how to answer.  The technique is identical to that which I use in many

 

Revisiting abstract landscapes

The Bounty, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 cm

Picking up where you left off is not easy when it involves a 9 year gap – but that is one of the things I’ve been trying to do this year – moving onward from some of the ‘abstract landscapes’ I did pre-2003, using montages of images taken from photographs.

But this time, rather than being inspired by great spaces and places, buildings under construction, or crowded cities, I am taking my cues from the Creative Word, and depicting ‘psychic’ (spiritual, rational) relationships in a more purposeful way.  Here is one such ‘landscape’, which I call ‘The Bounty’.

 

On Women, and why.

As long as women are prevented from attaining their highest possibilities, so long will men be unable to achieve the greatness which might be theirs.”  - Abdu’l-Bahá

…the education of woman is more necessary and important than that of man, for woman is the trainer of the child from its infancy. If she be defective and imperfect herself, the child will necessarily be deficient; therefore, imperfection of woman implies a condition of imperfection in all mankind, for it is the mother who rears, nurtures and guides the growth of the child.  - Abdu’l-Bahá

 

When Neda was shot, I was in the studio painting ‘Black and White’.  I was blissfully naive, and permanently tuned into the news, waiting for the announcement that the wait was over – the long, cold wait in the wilderness of exile that mine and my parents’

 

An update on ’7DS’, a travelling art exhibition dedicated to the Yaran.

Detail

I am thrilled and excited: ‘Seven Deadly Sins’, a piece about the Yaran, has just had its first exhibition. The seven wood panels were displayed at the Baha’i Arts and Letters Conference in London.  Many thanks to the organisers who installed it in my absence!

As the primary calling of this piece is to “plug into” related events in order to draw attention to the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran, this particular work of art has to be easily transportable, so I spent some time preparing it for travel.

As I was packing the panels into their case, I thought of the Yaran in their cramped cells. Recently,