Description: One night I was sitting and my eyes rested on my beige guitar and all of the sudden I saw it painted with interesting patterns so I gathered my brushes and paint tubes and I started working on it right away… I entitled the piece “La Note Orange”.
Year of Creation: 2006
THE PROSTRATED
Description: This painting is a celebration of the prostration, with all the universes that unfold during this prayer position where the lover is closest to The Beloved. This piece has elements I had been longing to express for the longest time so it was a true celebration of the joy of Salat (prayer). The prostration position in Islamic prayer is one of the most moving experience the soul can journey through. Even though to many it may be considered as just a physical position, prostration is the moment when we are closest to Allah (swt), we shed our ego and the grace unfolds… During his prayers alone, our beloved Prophet Muhammad (saw) used to stay in prostration for a long time and he would often shed tears.
Year of Creation: 2006
GUIAALALA
Description: Guiaalala means “the light” in Eshira, my maternal dialect. This piece is about the flamboyant dance that pervades our being as we mingle with the wild things Light does. It’s a celebration of our bewilderment with The Beloved. The poem I incorporated in the painting was written in French, for its English translation, please click here . It took me three months to complete this painting. Year of Creation: 2006.
~ Guiaalala (the light) ~
She observes the spectacle
of your magnitude,
Humbled by appearance’s
insignificance, her reign
mingles with the Presence
that wants her.
In her, a luminous Voice:
“Come back to Union!”
And in seven dimensions
this lover evolves toward us.
O! Divine, O! Beloved,
Annihilate this ego
Which wounds femininity
and her latitude; between
being and not-being,
She wanders you.
2007 copyrights Aida Toure
Zuhrtime Beads (c) 2006 Aida Toure. 18" x 24" acrylic on canvas panel
Description: “Zuhrtime Beads” represents the inner spectacle that can occur when one practices the ritual of Surrender, Zikr and praising of The Divine which all stir the soul to some ecstatic dance we can’t fathom … The whirling energy of this painting captures our harmony with the spheres and the secret activity of all surrendered atoms of the Creation. Read the poem below.
Year of Creation: 2006
~ Zuhrtime Beads ~
We are beads in human form
abandoned here to whirling
and buoyancy,
we perform
for the sake of Love
just like the planets,
the Sun and Jesus’ heart (as).
We are beads,
revolving at Zuhrtime
in Remembrance of our
union with The Divine.
2007 copyrights Aida Toure
THE BLACK HOLE
Description: The Black Hole was published in the textbook “Imaginez“.
"Imaginez" textbook
This piece developed from the poem Black Hole I wrote in 1999.
The impulse to make a painting of the poem came after listening to a song (by Gabonese composer Shogun). When I first heard the song, its energy brought me straight back to The Black Hole theme so I wanted to visually continue it… The term Black Hole here is multidimensional and thus transcends the region of space from which there is no return; it can be associated with the Breath or any current that pulls creation anew toward The All-Embracing.
Year of Creation: 2006.
~ Black Hole ~
In the black hole of breath
I daily disappear
to meld with inaudible waves
that take the form of poems
soon as I will to grace
any hand exuding calmness
a cyclone of light is set off
for the fortication of
starving human souls.
I ever embrace this globe
as the ink flows
I carry out the connection
with my zillion selves
who continue to ignore
that in the black hole of breath
I daily disappear
to become all that exists
until the abused essence of men
is restored and enhanced.
(from Unmanifest Poems)
2007 copyrights Aida Toure.
LE FEMININ NOIR
Description: This piece was created from the poem Le Feminin Noir below in celebration of the Divine Feminine in its Essence and all its manifest octaves.
Year of Creation: 2006
~ Le Feminin Noir ~
… Empreintes lumineuses,
Le Feminin Noir, principe pieux
Immanifeste comme le Elle de Dieu,
Nous sommes le Son sommeillant
En le regard de l’enfant.
Amour, subtilite et beaute
Toutes ivres en la Presence,
Les femmes couvent l’Essence
Comme une prosternation
Elles dissimulent la Proximite.
Qui se cherche se trouvera
En le Elle du Lui, Sa Majeste.
2007 copyrights Aida Toure.
Description: This painting evolved from and with this poem. I created this piece from a soft, captivating atmosphere of colors and scents … It deeply moved me.
~ Fragrance of Light: Roland et Les Anges ~
I wander inward
to be with you,
and to smell
the fragrance
of your light,
it soothes me
and reveals
the Gentle Guide,
the concealed One.
I move to the breeze
of your sound
to save my heart
from the grief
of separation.
You make my ego
supple and it bows to
The Divine! Urged by
love, it vanishes.
That’s how deep
you move me out of
my self to know the
ambrosia of not-beingness.
2007 copyrights Aida Toure
Year of Creation: 2006
La Revolution Des Mapanes: Shamssya a la Harpe. 14" x 18" acrylic on canvas panel
Description: This piece is in homage to the feminine, regenerating properties of the Sun. The sacred Harp concept here accompanies the healing function of the Sun. The painting’s movements relate to the effect of Harp’s sounds upon noble souls who are systemically forced into exclusion… which eventually leads to Revolution.
Year of Creation: 2006.
