Media: Ink on paper
ABOUT THE SERIES
My partner, Qayyum Johnson, and I have been honoring the moon cycle since the summer of 2019. Each new moon and full moon Qayyum writes a poem and I create a painting. Sometimes Qayyum writes the poem and I make a painting in response to that. Sometimes the other way around. Sometimes we both create from the inspiration of the moon.
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This painting was created in response to Qayyum's poem for the May 2023 Full Moon. It also honors his dear friend & mentor, Shekinah, who passed through a few days before the moon.
SHEKINAH BLOSSOM MOON
The music comes, stays & goes
Melody the presence
Melody of Afro-Caribbean music
Melodies that are missed & recalled, known & unknown
Melody the manifestation of the pragmatic ineffable
Melodies now from dawnlight, a chant of windchime, a mantra of grace
Melody of shoreline shushing, aspirating, dissipating into clarity
Melody of a human body: strong heart drum, peace-maker
Melody that harmonizes, gives birth, caretakes, signals divine
Melody in the smiling eyes of others, the melody of warmth
Melody of photographs of moments that become paintings
Melody without music, the shapenotes of space
Melody that brings the distant near
Melody of female friendship, the first cosmos
Melody of grandmothers, sisters, daughters, motherhood the rain
Melody of spring ferns, summer tomatoes, autumn cascades, winter sun
Melody of giving more & giving & giving again & sending beauty onward
Melody an ancient sequence of improvisation that heals the pain of death
Melodies of youth, melodies of growth, melodies of aging
Melody the dancer, melody that induces the dance
Melody of silence, full & empty
Melody of absence dwelling
Holy song of love’s face
Abiding Shekinah
Open, open
