Black's Art Challenge II

 

Hello,

Here is another instalment of the Black's Art challenge with my friend, Black_Spiritual.

The challenge is creating a short story that shows the artiste inspiration for each piece here today. I would to the best of my abilities to tell the story behind each piece with my own twist. Enjoy.

The Birth of a Star

A black and white painting

“What do you see?”

He has just completed a painting in white and black and he showed me this painting, across the infinite space and molecules that separate humans. He was close as well as far from me.

“ A Sunrise over a hill.”

I sat on a chair and positioned myself to look a bit serious, like someone who understood the deeper things of life.

“ But the Sun is not white,”

“Tell me then, what do you expect me to see? You know how easy it is for me to equate new experiences to old ones and judge them based on those, how easy to look at something from my perspective and relate them to the images formed in my head. You understand that I am bound by all my bias and I am only learning to view things now slowly through the eyes of others. So tell me what do you expect me to see?”

“The easiest thing to notice would be the black background that signifies the night. The night allows different things to thrive in it but what survives most is the evil and weakness of humanity. People always use the cover of the dark to torment all other living creatures. The darkness shrouds over all things and it would not allow you to determine the conditions and situations of the other elements.

Then there is light bursting forth from this great darkness, a light that has over time answered the call to come out of darkness.  The light represents a star and the beauty of this star is its resilience. The star is not bothered about every other thing that is going wrong because it has to shine. The night could not hold it down. It started slowly at first, taking its place and defiled the odds to accept the dark. It comes out as slow as it can and you would notice if you look closer that the star has a long way to go. It has not fully come into all its splendour, but it believes that when the time comes it would. So till that time, it would continue to shine brighter and brighter till its perfect moment”.

“Maybe you are right then, but the sun is also a star you see.”

 He gave me a small laugh as he backed away from the painting.

“The sun might be a star little one, but it does not come out at night.”

Poise and Grace

I know a woman that lives miles away from ọja ọba. 

She leaves home every market day with her wares balanced on her head, her basket filled with the finest fabrics and jewellery she sold balanced on her head. She walks the longest path and sing songs of might warriors as goes on her way. When she returns in the evening with her basket now filled with food items and a gourd containing the freshest palm wine she bought from the farmers market on her way back. She walks with a sway in her steps, and a smile on her face with nice words to spare for the little children around her. Sometimes she gets tired after a long day and uses her hands to balance what she carries, careful not to allow all her day work fall and go into waste.

I can tell the story of this woman every day but every time I remember her and the way she walks two words ring in my head, poise and grace. She has learnt to create balance in her ways and system, taking each day as a slow dance. She walks gracefully across town and never seem to falter in her steps.

I realized one thing from the story of the woman, that life in itself is a journey, be it to a market or to whatever destination our destiny leads. We all carry with us a whole lot of things. The love from family and friends, betrayal from others around us, our passions and our anger, beliefs and fears, countless memories be it good or bad, dreams that translate into who we eventually become, hurt that we can seem to let go off, even at times the things people think of us. The way we carry all this matter and exposes the quality of life we end up living. We strive to create balance, a pattern if need be something to help us deal with life. Often, we find ourselves in need of support when our baggage become too heavy to carry. 

 

I share these stories with you so that you would not be lost in the every day and stumble, crashing under all the pressure and excessive load that your journey seems to bring. Learn to let go of the things that no longer serve you, ask for help as you go through life, in all you do pray for grace to guide each step. And never forget sometimes, all you need is poise and grace. 

What are your thoughts on this? 

Let me know in the comment section or you can leave a message for me at theestherian@gmail.com.

You can follow the artist on

IG: Blackdspiritual

Twitter: @black_spiritual

Contact: (+234) 0812 634 3053

Have a beautiful week ahead.

The Estherian