Finding Shelter in a Circle of Gratitude Number 2 Existential Heartbeat

by Aberjhani

Title

Finding Shelter in a Circle of Gratitude Number 2 Existential Heartbeat

Artist

Aberjhani

Medium

Painting - Silk-featherbrush Artstyle + Digital Painting

Description

The title for this second canvas in the “Finding Shelter in the Circle of Gratitude” series is “Existential Heartbeat.” It was inspired by published comments from one of my favorite contemporary authors, Ben Okri, while in the process of the completing the series. At the time, the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. was approaching 800,000 and the number worldwide had already surpassed 5 million. Numbers like that along with the climate change crisis and military conflicts prompted Okri to call for what he describes as existential creativity” , to serve the unavoidable truth of our times.” And yet, what would creative artists be without the visionary impulse to paint, write, and dream beyond pain and terror.

Thus far, different images in this Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle painting have evoked a variety of interpretations. For me, the polychromatic teal, blue, yellow, red, and green heart in the lower center has to do with the love and courage often demonstrated while battling the coronavirus plague. It also represents the dread of sheltering in place during the most dangerous surges of the pandemic. Several elements, like glowing waves of black and blue, are also intentional. But I always enjoy when viewers point out something I did not intend. I’ve done that myself when looking at an abstract painting by another artist.

In addition to being included in this series, Existential Heartbeat is also part of a section in an a forthcoming artbook of writings and original visual pieces dealing with different aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABOUT THE SERIES
Expressing gratitude for the “little things in life” as well as any “big blessings” is something I’ve always done as an adult and something many in the United States remind themselves to do around Thanksgiving time. It is also a practice which has helped a lot of people make it through the COVID-19 pandemic in the face of painful losses and restrictions. My 3-part “Finding Shelter in the Circle of Gratitude” art series is not a denial of the fact that coronavirus cases and deaths continue to occur in my homeland, with counts going down one week and then up the next. It is more an affirmation that life itself continues, always, to blossom and evolve in different ways.

The three works included in the series are:
Finding Shelter in a Circle of Gratitude Number 1: A Bouquet of Humanity
Finding Shelter in a Circle of Gratitude Number 2: Existential Heartbeat
Finding Shelter in a Circle of Gratitude Number 3: Meanwhile Back on Earth

For recent art exhibit news please go to: https://fineartamerica.com/pressreleases/saa-and-faa-artist-tackles-climate-change-in-new-airport-art-exhibit.html

Aberjhani
Original Silk-Featherbrush Artstyle
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance

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November 19th, 2021

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