In light of the fires that overtook a big portion of land in Cape Town recently, I found this new range I have been working on for an upcoming exhibition to be a sooted expression of the ashen scene.
All of us have a story to tell of a shadowed valley we have walk through or find ourselves in currently. It seems as unavoidable as the moon rising. Darkness falls, if not in our lives, then in our hearts. I have been challenged with my view of this, how I choose to look at the terrain, as if patiently grown by Him towards seeing the beauty after dark.
When you lose or almost lose someone you love, it seems a bitter sweet simplicity slowly sets in. And we find ourselves faced with the precious fragility of life. How exquisite do the delicate details not become when their brevity beckons our gaze? In our rush for the life we dream of, we are stopped if only for that while, to see the lives we hold. Amidst the imperfections and the personal struggles of our own and those we keep close, loss as a thorned reminder helps us to see the beauty and to love the not.
So back to this view I’ve been challenged with; tough times come with the territory of life. They will always be there. And if they will always be there as sure as the sun breaks through every morning, then why be overwhelmed in an anxious pursuit of a way out? Instead, how about walking through it, eyes open, heart open and be moved by other people’s struggle amidst your own. Growing through it, together. Its times like these that make the soul lean. Its times like these that we can see the black, or the bloom in the black.
Black is beautiful indeed. It is probably my favourite colour (although I stand to be corrected in saying that, seeing that as an artist, black is indeed not a colour, but a collective absorption of all colour) Place any image or colour in front of black, and you are as drawn in like the colour wheel is, to focus on its backdropped display.
In a time of blackened loss and charred hands, may we spot the ‘bloom’ and the hope of life it holds in contrast to the current.
To all the families affected by the fires, a heartfelt prayer remains in your favour.