Aad
आड़
24" x 24"
Acrylic & Gold Leaf on Canvas
Aad is wall, boundary, barricade, but it can also mean protection, cover, or concealment, occlusion.
I worked on this piece Summer 2020 and I found myself gazing at it this morning. Given where we are today, our thirst for clarity as we feel adrift in a fractured world seems apt.
I know, deep in my heart, that I am the other, and the other is me. Humme hum, tumhi tum. I know that the walls and divisions are historic, created, man-made, illusions and yet the barriers can seem so daunting. The deeper I go in my Kundalini practice, the more I go within, I sense that I am one with the other, part of something unified. And yet, there are moments I feel divided, stagnated, unheard, unheeded. I still cannot claim to understand, and do not feel understood.
I usually pepper my canvases with three-dimensional texture and COLOR. This painting eschewed that texture, that exuberant color. The simmering is reflective of where we are - unclear, halted, paused.
I remain stridently curious, not willing to disengage. I am devoted to understanding, deep in my bones. Because I cannot love without knowing deep in my cells.
I look on both sides of this barricade, wondering if either side recognizes that the other is them. We are in this together.
