This is the first completed work I produced based on the calligraphic element that reads “There Is No God But God”. The element is “backlit” by a yellow circle, referencing the sun, eluding to hope and strength, and is flanked by the opening verses of the famous poem The Will To Life by the Tunisian poet Abu al-Qasem al-Shabbi. The verses translate to: “If, one day, the people wills to live, Then fate must obey.“
The scripture and poetry, both in Arabic, lie within a bed of blossoms through which the lines of a poem I wrote about faith and inaction can be read. It seems rather arrogant to me now to have blended my modest words with those of the great al-Shabbi. Then again, nothing is ever truly new, but rather created out of inspiration drawn from people and things and places that have existed for all to appreciate, and so it was an act of gratitude and not grandiosity.
I will be posting more of the paintings and graphic illustrations I have made as part of this series in the coming weeks. Sometimes creating allows little time for documenting.