Reflections from a Woman Artist
Earnestly speaking the most wonderful feeling is to walk into your house amid a bed of Spring flowers. The bulbs of daffodils, hyacinths and crocuses that I planted last year are blooming in their full glory this year. As I return home, I am welcomed by yellow blooms of daffodils that dance in the Spring breeze making me feel joyful and welcomed. The pleasant surprises of deep purple crocuses that grew under the crape myrtle tree became a source of inspiration not only for me as an artist, but for my students as well. In my mid March art classes, I had made it a point for the students to be inspired by the beautiful DC area Spring season. We looked almost botanically and artistically at the beauty of each flower and painted and drew it in celebration of welcoming Spring time. There is something to be said about the fruits of one’s labor not only in art but in everyday life. My garden, although not mighty or large, holds a big place in my heart. I find with every flower grown and every plant taking shape, I am loved by nature and that the labor of love and energy put into my garden is very much rewarded upon seeing the beautiful blooms flourishing within one’s yard. As a working artist since decades, I bring in not only artistic knowledge of my craft to the budding art students but my love for nature which I have found to be utterly contiguous. As a pioneer in nature-forward thinkers from creating paintings inspired by nature to writing poems that celebrate nature’s beauty, I find my footsteps in the arts and in philosophy along with ideas to be thoroughly admired and followed. I had worked in helping art institutions in the DC area stand on their feet, and now I see them thrive not only in DC but other states as well while they continuously keep a keen eye on my artistic steps and nature-forward vision. As a visionary, I find my influences to be very vast not only to my art students and other artists in the DMV area but globally as well. I have aimed throughout these years to keep a very low profile since the social media world and the World Wide Web can be at times very similar to the Wild Wild West. In such, intellectual property and thought unfortunately seem to be up for grabs and unheard of in certain parts of the world near and far… I feel though as an educator, one of the lessons that is essential to be taught to art enthusiasts is to stay true to yourself and to find your own vision rather than take the vision + thought of other established artists. Nevertheless, bizarrely there is a silver lining to those people’s behavior, the ones who usually opt to copy and paste the art/writing of others — by doing such a thing, they only spread more of my vision to the world. So, Thank you for your efforts in making your productions resemble my vision, art and writings — this way you spread my message and vision to the world as well (two strokes of luck for me I guess). The sad truth that I can relay from my observation of such copycat behavior is that though such conduct might keep them floating for a couple of years, but in reality they lack everything that defines creativity. They will always need talented artists to pave the way for them. What they somehow seem blind to, since they are not visionaries is that the world is a very small place and that people are very smart and notice such matters.
With this, I want to bring your attention to the 2015 Cherry Blossom paintings that I did back then. Living in the DC area which is known for its beautiful Cherry Blossom season, I wanted at that time to spread my painterly touch and create heavily pigmented art that embodies the full Spring arrival. Little did I know that my Cherry Blossom trees’ art would not only influence and inspire some DC artists who follow my artistic footsteps but to also heavily inspire big superstar world artists as well. I circle back and stress on the face that in our small global village what happens in someone’s studio can have a ripple effect on the rest of the world. Something to be learned here to all the budding thinkers and visionaries out there, what lies in your mind that you put on a piece of paper or on a sheet of canvas and you end up posting to the world can transpire and make its rounds globally to become the big trend within the art world. Since we are in March and it is women’s month after all, I can melancholically reiterate that since I am a woman artist this makes my vision and art easily taken, (there is this general idea that it is totally OK and fair game to take from women artists). Thus, what was dwelling in my mind and became artwork from years ago, gets discovered even years later by a big male artist who predictably gets celebrated to the max. Such are the ironies of life, yet also the realities of life! I learned throughout the years to follow the motto of Michelle Obama, and take the high road. Whenever I see art that is derivative from my earlier work, I recall Michelle’s words “When they go low, we go high”. This definitely is a life saver, and that is why we need more authentic women like Michelle Obama to pave the way for our female generation to stay confident and strong in the face of storms and adversary. For years I felt (I am using an analogy here) like David fighting the Goliaths in my life. I am sure, I am not the only David out there fighting my Goliaths. There are plenty like me, the dreamers who with their vision and dreams shape the world to be a better place; and hey if this gets emulated for the betterment of the world, so be it!
