I am Layers

I am layers
So many experiences
My senses are primal
Within the chaos…
There is always something emerging

Something beautiful
Something balanced
Something playful and raggedy
A portrait of my subconscious
Lingering closely…
Always looking

My mind reflects and there is the presence of equilibrium. The continuous force of life’s unpredictability nurtures the creative mind. A thematic journey is building. The theme whispers freedom with a question. I emerge yearning to solidify a scheme of ideas. My being is still waiting to depart into a picture plane… it crawls.

Painting is an identity a tribute to a continued existence. Building altars by way of ceremonies for life and death in between there exists a stage. This stage is emerging as an identity at an interval. It is striding, swinging and waltzing to affirm and validate one’s being. The movement begins with chaos and harmony in the horizon. The elements of harmony and I walk with memories dreams and suspended moments of imagination.

I see an image hanging in a corner of my mind’s eye. It is like a quilt shifting and shuffling layers, layers of two worlds Ethiopia and America. It is a never-ending imaginary quilt edging in my mind’s eye. It has so many faces, pieces, patches and asymmetrical impressions. This imaginary quilt is always suspended like an amusing prophecy expanding and contracting in my mind. The image waiting to be created, transformed, altered or recreated at moments notice. The so many pieces of surfaces, color, lines, textures and forms, the patches of ideas, concepts, inspirations, influences, and multidimensional cultures has invoked and stimulated me to build my visual identity. The asymmetrical and primal method is the means for stitching and resolving the painting. The primal route is by no means a defiance of the tradition. It is a departure. It is an existence that emerged from experiences ingrained in ceremonies.

My imaginary quilt is not sentiments or nostalgic recitals of the imitated past but a contemporary web of dreams, spontaneous discoveries, extensions of visual observations, visual inspirations as well as the tension between internal and external forces of human nature. This web creates my awareness, contributes, and traces the reflections of my visual voice.

Coming from Ethiopia years ago was a journey of bliss. The revolution was in full force, blasting and dismantling the fabrics of society. The impact was knocking at everybody’s door. The knock at the door was incarceration or death. Like any growing child, the experience was and is still imperative to my journey. It is a better path to give silence a voice. I came out of death seeking life and freedom I was the lucky one. A remnant of the experience exists in the present by way of memories and remembrances. The Impact of traumatic experience that conditioned the psyche will always be guidance to understanding human nature as well as behavior. It makes me perceive and shape a better picture.