I whirl

In a world of chaos,

I whirl.

finding peace inside

connecting, strengthening...

Amongst egos

I whirl

escaping...

I raise my hands...one begging Him for mercy and love,

the other towards the earth...spreading this mercy and love.

I whirl.

Come whirl with me.

Feel the ecstasy

Shed the thick, stinking garb of your ego,
You have worn it too long....

Come and join me.

Let us reconnect again...

Become one as we were..

As we were meant to be.

~ Ambereena Razvi

This work by Ambereena Razvi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. 

[Image]

This work by Ambereena Razvi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

South Asian Heritage Exhibition

So... this is my first group exhibition in Toronto. I'm looking forward to it...Also looking forward to meeting new folks and art aficionados.
To those living in Toronto, please do come. I would be so, so happy to see you there. To those out of Toronto, I will miss you and hope you can attend my next exhibition.

Update: The Exhibition went really great... Beautiful attendance, lovely people. Even my High School English teacher came!! My friends made it even better with their presence and loads of help. A Special Thank you to Mr. Fahim Hamid Ali for organising the exhibition and Salim Khan for helping me to transport and display my works alongside his.

'Come whirl with me'

with my besties... 'coz we're just way too cool. :p

with Samir Dossal - Art aficionado

C'est la vie!!

The time from August 1st 2011 until now has been very, very trying for me. I have seen pretty steep ups and downs, experienced emotional trauma, have gone through short stagnant phases that seem as long as eternity...I have withstood all this chaos and feel stronger........ because Allah has always enveloped me with love, has consoled me at night when I lie down with a broken heart, by putting me to sleep before I shed a tear and given me comforting dreams. He has loved me in my worst state and through it, has brought out my best state...

And then I heard this:

Asafalta gheray tujhe, marg  ho avirudh,
(When failure surrounds you, and your way with obstacles is strewn )
Paas na ho dhan teray aur karya ho apaar,
(When you have no wealth, and your goals seem unattainable)
Bhaag mat! kar prayaas, kar prayaas! bhaag mat 
(Don't run!, keep trying, Keep trying! Don't run.)

Chaahe tu hasna, kintu aankhay ho numm,
(You want to smile, but your eyes fill with tears)
Bhaag mat! kar prayaas, kar prayaas, bhaag mat
(Don't run! Keep trying, Keep trying! dont run)

Peeda hi sukh hai...Sukh  hi hai peeda...
(Pain is happiness, Happiness is pain)
Haar mein hi jeet hai, jeet mein hi haar, 
(In failure is sucess and sucess in failure)
kar prayaas bhaag mat, 
(Keep trying, dont run!
bhaag mat kar prayaas.
(Don't run, keep trying)

Amazing how God speaks to us in different ways, thru different people...

I met a very old Sardaarji on my way back to downtown from Brampton...I had my veil on. He sat next to me and said 'Asalaam alaikum  बेटा  (my child)'.. We started a conversation and he started telling me of his struggles in life....eventually to be left alone in the end.. He said ' बेटा , I have property and money but my children have left me'...Then he said....'No matter what  बेटा , रब को याद  करते रहो....उसे भूलो मत '(Always think of God.... Don't ever forget him). I knew that one was for me...a subtle reminder that Allah wants me to think of him constantly.

Allah, My beloved.......my true beloved....and my only beloved...You have put me in a realm of uncertainty, chaos and hurt. I mount the roller coaster everyday and come home tired on every level. But I still love you...Because I can feel you molding me....sculpting away the dirt....polishing away the impurities....In pain is happiness and in happiness is pain...I understand now.

Solitary promenades - a trail of intermittent thoughts

Seul.....solo... solitary,
my soul's soliloquy,
A never ending ebullition,
sometimes an expostulation,
No suave speech here...
Just a flurry of brazen words, feelings, thoughts...
A sudden outburst
like Hokusai's great wave,
in my world of deafening silence....
Peace... or silent noise....
a confounding cacophony......

I just had a moment there,
with my soul...
bonding....
detaching...
where lies the connection..
between the mind and the soul?
Is it the heart?
or is it?.......

Another moment gone.
whisked away by the winds of change
fading footprints in the sands of my memoires..
shall I backtrack?
Is it worth it?
or shall I create a new trail
set off for another promenade...
an unending new beginning...

I want it to stop.
Ou est la fin?

Stop!

How many more metamorphosis must I go through?
Why?
I feel like Kafka's Gregor.
a temporary, recurrent phase, I know...
Can't wait to move on.
Barriers built of moods
a diversity of negatives
a myriad facettes
lost....
(oh!) To find,
Meta....physical beauty,


in shards.

It's time to put the shards together again,
bind them with the grout of hope
and ignore the pain.
and re-create a mosaic
knowing well that those shards will break - again,
into smaller pieces....
and the cycle goes on.
The soliloquy continues.

Behold!...a dream...
like Joseph's eleven stars and the moon paying obeicense in Van Gogh's starry vision,
I try to interpret my nightly visions
and visitations
of memories
of pain

interpretations....
a form of hope.
interpretations...

untrustworthy interpretations..

and the soliloquy goes on....
a never ending interpretation
of a a dreamworld we cannot avoid...
a dreamworld we call life.

The run

I just got back from my 7am run. I ran past a tree on my way and the thought process began....

"Look how only a certain section of leaves on this tree have changed their colour from a monotonous green to beautiful shades of Autumn.... like they've been kissed by sun rays and have blushed.... like they are now 'falling' in love...only to be reborn again later.... a never ending process....We too are touched by many things in our lives...the sun rays that touch us are sometimes soft, sometimes harsh...sometimes it hurts, sometimes is lifts us up.. either way, we are touched... and we evolve. it is up to us to evolve into something more beautiful, so as to inspire others... like this tree inspired me....."

Autumn touched
( I painted this after I came home from
my run)

this morning's inspiration

I ran past a blue salvia bush....growing on the outside of a fence, almost in the pedestrians/joggers path...My thought process continued....

"Many people might get annoyed when something like this bush gets in their way...it might break their speed... their oblivious stance in life...There is a reason for that beautiful plant to grow there...It's speaking to you. ...'Stop!..look around you....I am beauty....I am you...we are all connected... we are one..'. Tomorrow, someone might uproot that bush....."

inspiration in my way......

I went past squirrels,..... so many of them.... Reminded me of us...only our basest of instincts are now the most important of all...Survival and reproduction.....not in that order.

We work endlessly, get in each others way, annoy each other, attack each other...and this is the disgusting truth....lesson learnt....

Our run in life is too fast...It is now all about competition...keeping up with the Joneses...Let's slow down....and enjoy what life has to offer each of us...instead of snatching from each other.

But the mot beautiful lesson was from the tree that stood naked ..no leaves protecting it... it had weathered all the storms, lived through many seasons, some harsh, some kinder. Its bark bearing the marks of the many challenges it faced....its bent, twisted limbs proof that life shaped it as per the Will of the Creator, and yet, it didn't lose its stance. Its arms still reached towards the heavens, always in prayer.

That humbled me.

Nature is most definitely the best teacher.

Enjoy your day my friends.... and keep an open heart.

Much love.

This work by Ambereena Razvi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

To my son - with love

Dear Son.

As tears stream down my face, I write these words for you. I love you so much.... and I miss you even more. Circumstances are such that you are not sitting in my lap with your little arms around me. Every second I spend away from you is like a stab in my already broken heart. You are the light of my life...and this seperation has dimmed my world.
I know that the sacrifices we, your parents, are making will pay off eventually... as the sacrifices my parents have made are paying off.
This seperation probably will not even be in your 2 year old memory... but is eating away my peace of mind.
IF you ever read this when you're older and hopefully, I will be by your side when you do, I will tell you all about our struggles and prepare you... and guide you, to guide your progeny....Your name isn't Ali Mahdi* for no reason, my love.... Inshallah, may you always be rightly guided.

Portrait of my baby boy
Graphite pencils

*Meaning of Mahdi - The rightly guided one.



This work by Ambereena Razvi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Bollywood - Black and White

So I'm back to practicing portraiture now. It's been quite some time and I'm really enjoying it. I figured that it would be best to draw well known faces. They are always around and tend to stay in ones mind.I, personally, find people from the black and white era of Bollywood to be extremely beautiful with highly expressive visages.
I'd picked up cheap graphite shading pencils from Sears, from the 'back to school' section and a thick sketch pad as well... I got down to it and couldn't stop.. I finished a portrait in about three hours. It's been fun. Can't wait to try out the dry brush technique though... Soon... :)

Meena Kumari
This tragedy queen had the softest, most sensitive face of all. She'd convey her feelings in silence, with downcast eyes and a philosophical frown.

Dilip Kumar
Dashing, debonair Dilip....One could easily sense the hopeless romantic under the egoistic facade.

Nargis
She'd put Narcissus to shame...Her face was labelled the most symmetrical face of that age.I love her classic, Greco-roman features.

Madhubala
No words for this one...She had one of those faces people couldn't stop staring at. Perfect features and an endearing personality.

More coming up here...Watch this space..




This work by Ambereena Razvi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.