A drawing or painting doesn’t always come easy. Some ‘births’ are quick an smooth, some are a real struggle. Comparing ‘creating art’ to giving birth is quite accurate (for me at least)… It takes time to grow and when it’s ready to be born there is the process of giving birth (creating the actual drawing/painting).

Some of my work comes easily and I have a clear image of what I want, I’ll make sketches before starting on the final version and the end result is usually what I envisioned. But with this one I struggled. I made it very intuitively, without knowing what the end result would be, no study whatsoever, I just started drawing without a clue. I didn’t like it at first, so I left it for a few days.

When I looked at it again I realized what was missing and I added the digital layer.

I’m quite enjoying the fusion of drawing ‘old school’ and then adding the finishing touch with a digital layer. Which brings me to a point where I have the art work existing in 2 dimensions. Unfinished in the real world and the finished version on screen. Now I’m looking for good ways of printing it off (I’ll be sharing the printing-process-to-come on the blog as well), I am working towards my first ever exhibition with my new work, fingers crossed this will be soon.

The topic of praying is something that occupies my mind a lot, already from a young age actually. I’ve experienced different forms of praying. As a young girl it was the Catholic prayer (I was baptized Christian at 8 years, which was my own request. Both my parents don’t practice their religions actively). Later, after going through a short atheist and then agnostic phase I became a Buddhist (in the Tibetan Buddhist Lineage of His Holiness Dalai Lama) and eventually I arrived at my end the station of my search: Islam. (the religion of my Jordanian side of the family).

A recent drawing:

One thing I really learned, is that all traditions will say that their path is the only true path. Even though I feel that Islam is the true path, I understand other people  who are feeling that about their tradition, and that’s beautiful.  No one should be forced to practice something they don’t feel right about. I wish we could all learn to appreciate our differences. And respect each other on the basis that we are all humans. All major religions preach LOVE…but why is this not more visible? Is it us, who are not following our traditions properly? Or maybe it’s the media exposure that makes religion look evil? Or a combination?

Drawings from my recent blogpost DID YOU KNOW/ 5 daily prayers  where I’m exploring the Muslim prayer and its benefits:

What I like about the video below is that it demonstrates that there is no need for war, we can totally do this, there CAN be peace. We just need to open up to the idea.

My prayer is that we find a way to bring our human family closer together and create more peace, more understanding, more justice..

Ameen

Thanks for visiting, see you on Monday!

Love, Salam

Isabella