Mazhers Story of Art

“When a poet digs himself into a hole, he doesn’t climb out. He digs deeper, enjoys the scenery, and comes out the other side enlightened.”

― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

For me an artist is this very person. For me, art is this very hole. There is no end to it, no banality, only far-reaching enlightenment.

However, art per say can never be pinned down in the shackles of word or speech. It escapes and evades all such confinement. It is more like ‘love’, or as Iqbal would say ‘ Ishk’ . Something to be felt but never truly articulated. Something with a myriad of expressions and dimensions, not one monolithic definition. Something that reaches far beyond our comprehension and understanding yet envelopes us from all around.

My journey as a visual artist began from a very young age. I think I was in grade 7 or 8, when I started sketching and soon this fervor took the shape of a passion for oil paints. The feeling that consumed me when brush strokes were my arsenal and canvas my story of life is something which I find difficult to articulate. I would just dig deeper and deeper into this hole, stay in for as long as I could, wished that I could never come out of it, but whenever I did, I was always a new person; a more sensitive being, a more denaturalized individual and undoubtedly possessed an enlightened visage.

Art for me was more than colors. It was energy. It was energy to be felt, radiated and consumed by sensitive souls. I can confidently assert that my life as an artist paved the way for my life as a spiritual healer. These very experiences were responsible for making me susceptible and vulnerable to the multitude of energies which surround each of us every second of every day. Nature and Figurative Art have been some of all my all-time favorite themes. Nature has always been kind to me. She has been my Mother Goddess, inspiring me, nurturing me and endowing my soul with indescribable depth.

The binary of essence and existence is another theme which interests me greatly and serves as an inspiration for me at countless times. Yet, it is at times, when art becomes capitalized, that I lose my inspiration, but then again my calling hails me.

If I had to say something about myself, it would be that art awakened me spiritually. It made me aware of and vulnerable to auras. It made me harness my negative energies and of those around me to tune in to positive frequencies. It propelled me to think deeply and more profoundly. It instigated me to think outside the box and to outdo conventions. Most significantly, it made me feel love, peace and light. If I were to sum up my existence in one phrase, it would be that ‘I am all love, am all peace, am all light.’