I found this piece in McMullen. It is titled: Untitled by Omar El-Nagdi.
The piece (with its natural colors and perfectly imperfect poignant shapes) is welcoming, safe, comforting, hopeful, realistic, natural, and simple while being incredibly powerful and meaningful. The piece flows and moves as I have said but to add onto this the piece dances. The piece performs the dance of the natural. As each shape is in its flow (thus the piece is in a collective, united flow) the painting literally comes to life upon sight as it performs the dance of divine love, unity. This artwork is very in tune with natural divine forces.
The shapes are described as rhythmically repeating because this embodies the concept of motion, movement, dance, flow that I chat about in my analysis along with emphasizing how all the shapes belong to themselves and to one another. They flow in unison. The image is described as “pulsating” and filled with “meditative elements” which is again something I touch on as the piece moves and flows with its viewers and with itself. Similarly the connection to the “indivisible nature of the divine” is gorgeous and very beautifully captured. Each element feels meditative, connecting, a part of something greater yet so simple and perfect.
Within this piece there is a strong energy of joy circulating through. As the piece flows and moves embodying joy, divine forces, and the unity between all of humanity it similarly encompasses and reminds me of the forces behind ancestry, blood lines that are ever so alive in the book ISC. Within this piece I find what it means to carry one’s blood line through the dance of life, to embody and breathe one’s past lives and experiences as one flows through living breathing life. The togetherness found within the joy, love that is resembles within the unity inspired me and brought me back to the ISC book in which no matter where these women were around the world, they were not often in the same spot, they were together and sharing in love, ancestry, and blood line.
After reading these I decided to channel some black joy (found in our slave narrative text) and the women spheres found in ISC and paint, draw, doodle these free form images !
These are ways in which I experience, feel, view, imagine black joy to feel like especially within feminine realms. I imagined connections with music, rhythm, feeling, emotional landscapes filled with rich history and a powerful connection to the earth.
Hey Carolina! I think your depiction of black joy in these doodles is really unique and dope. It reminds me of the Alhambra in Granda, Spain where a lot of the art on the walls is inscribed with the repeated line “There is no victor but Allah.” I think there is a lot of meaning in repeating phrases because I think that each time a phrase is seen/heard there is a different personally perspective that is evoked whether the time between seeing it is 5 seconds or 5 years. Just like in Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo, the reader develops a different meaning to repeated phrases such as “the south in her” or “the slaves who are ourselves,” depending on how far you are in to the novel. Likewise, so do lines and abstract art in giving meaning to things you may not have put deep thought into initially. I particularly like how you talk about black women in conjunction with the uniquely feminine experience. Often times, black women are left out of social discourse surrounding feminism or anti-racism, which is why the conversation surrounding intersectionality is crucial to social change. It is integrating art/ideas such as yours with the intention of experiencing black joy in feminine realms that provoke needed conversations that will ultimately lead to action and social changes.