THE THRONE 3″ WEARABLE PAINTING:  cuff bracelet

The Throne (c) 2010 Aida Toure | fragranceoflight.com

Description:  “The Throne” is a 3 inches wide cuff bracelet, all hand-painted with acrylic; it was very pleasant to work on the details of this scintillating piece. “The Throne” evokes the original station of the soul as we journey through the material dimension that may seem disharmonious yet we are still connected to the most sublime Reality; our challenge is to awaken to it like all the sages (as) have done through meditation/prayer and virtuous living. (More about the jewel on fragranceoflight.com)

~ The Throne ~

Everything I touch
carries your scent,
it pulls me out of self
toward the All.
Bewildered, I babble
like a toddler
whose universe
is her mother’s Love,
all over my soul
to protect me
with your very Sound.
When you breathed
I fell from your lips,
to love you from here
all the way to The Throne,
O, how sweet this Returning!
My soul walks out of I
in entreaty of you,
such remembrance is
a tender kiss
upon my cheek;
you gather me and
lay these thoughts
upon canvas like
vast sheets of light.

(c) 2009-2010 Aida Toure

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AMINATA~DISAMU 24″x30″ oil & acrylic on canvas

Aminata~Disamu (c) 2009 Aida Toure

“I was made to love three things from your world: women, perfume, and the comfort of my eye is in prayer.” ~Prophet Muhammad (saw)

“Paradise lies at the feet of Mothers.” ~Prophet Muhammad (saw)

“Whoever knows oneself knows one’s Lord” ~Prophet Muhammad (saw)

Description: in a dimension that is ruled by ego consciousness, the attributes that gather, unites and thus mold us to embrace love are suppressed. The suppression of these spiritual attributes so naturally embodied by women, has been applied to all institutions governed by falsehood. The feminine principle which has always been revered by all prophets (as) and sages of all ages has been repressed for subtlety, mercy, gentleness, sensitivity represent true power for they propel, revolutionize, heal and restore balance and truth through Love. To encourage the cultivation of these sublime qualities, I wanted to work on a series of paintings about the feminine principle in its original manifestation on Earth.

Thus, “Aminata~Disamu” is the second painting in this specific series that started with “Kemet Incandescence”. On this painting, the subject is holding a harp which symbolizes life. Her luxurious, glowing appearance represents the spiritual essence inherent to all. With the effects of conditioning, we erroneously give more importance to the resources deemed “valuable” by alien materialistic forces while disregarding the fact that the soul is for all nations a natural resource in its purest highest form, simply because the soul funnels the attributes of The Divine, its innate purpose is to bear the qualities of Light and to manifest them to the material dimension as Cosmic Law suggests through the Sun’s relentless activity, a macrocosm of our own inner life. Let us remember that the prophets (as) were persecuted for honoring the Cosmic Order of life over the man-made corrupt systems that govern the world. This systemic tendency to covet, persecute and eliminate those who manifest their unconditional surrender to their Source,  discourages many from fully being themselves, yet light comes from The Divine One and it persists despite our not-being aware of its perpetual embrace of us. This divine phenomenon is channeled through these spiritual attributes woman embodies, she is the veil between mankind and The Divine.

(c) 2010 Aïda Touré

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KEMET INCANDESCENCE 24″x30″ oil & acrylic on canvas

Kemet Incandescence (c) 2009 Aïda Touré

Description: I painted “Kemet Incandescence”

Ancestral Devotion

Ancestral Devotion

for the album cover of “Ancestral Devotion”, the new CD by Jazz musician Lonnie Plaxico. The piece was inspired from Africa’s ancient art that captures the spirituality of African culture, its reverence for the feminine principle and the sacredness of music. In experimenting with this different yet ancient genre of  two dimensional African art, I experienced such proximity to the very foundation of all civilizations; that I plan to explore it more. Through this painting, I wanted to honor the sacred feminine as well as the origin of the spiritual tradition of Light now known as “Sufism”.

~ Kemet Incandescence ~

Inner lamps all lit,
a billion ecstasies
are now speaking of Hu;
each, gracefully interweaving
in the Universe’s womb;
whispers of light are induced
in the pure child’s mind
through the rays of Shams,
royalty bestowed by the Divine.
You see, nobility never exiles,
although ever coveted by the fallen ones,
it dances in and out of these truths
the African genius has laid like gems
in the depths of humanity’s collective self,
yes we are these muses
who bore Kemet Incandescence,
through our Harps, Flutes and hands,
revealing the Music of the spheres
the pineal gland is immersed in:
Bismillah ir Rahmanir Rahim

copyright 2009 Aïda Touré.

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ELLE, LA LUMIERE NOIRE 17″x22″ oil & acrylic on masonite panel

She, the BlackLight (c) 2009 Aida Toure

“Stand to pray all Night except a little, Half of it or a little less than that, or a little more. And recite the Qur’ân (aloud) in a slow, (pleasant tone and) style for we shall charge thee with a word of weight. Lo! the vigil of the night is (a time) when impression is more keen and speech more certain.”
~Holy Qur’an 73: 2-6

“And, indeed, We created man from sounding clay, out of dark inorganic matter.”
~Holy Qur’an 15: 26

“O mankind! We have created you from a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another.”
~Holy Qur’an 49: 13

“Mankind were but ONE community; then they differed…”
~10:19, Holy Qur’an

“O people! Your Lord is one. No Arab is superior to a Persian; no Persian is superior to an Arab; no red man is superior to a black man; no black man is superior to a red man – except in piety. The most honored unto God are the most pious.”
~Prophet Muhammad (saw)

Description: “She, the Black Light” was inspired from this poem composed in French. This painting has diverse meanings: spiritually, it evokes the attributes of the Cosmos’ transcendent obscurity which opens the heart to contemplation of the highest form of luminescence, the Unmanifest Black Light. There also is an historical octave to this painting: it addresses the African origin of all mankind and thus the equality of all people. With the enslavement and colonization of Africans, it was necessary to create atrocious ideologies to “justify” those crimes against humanity. Africans were degraded through the suggestion that “Blackness” was a curse, a sign of impurity and inferiority which led to the deliberate concealment of Africa’s ancient glorious history. This falsification of history along with its demeaning purpose fragmented Africa and rendered it vulnerable to overall exploitation, repression and plundering to this day. “She, the Black Light” evokes the inexhaustible richness that has caused the Motherland to be coveted, invaded, preyed upon and pillaged on many dimensions for centuries. I painted this piece while listening to the albums “African Angel” and “Bamisphere” of brilliant vocalists Njamy Sitson and Gino Sitson.

~ Elle, La Lumière Noire ~

… O Belle, O Beauté,
grâce déployée, revigorante
enveloppe de toutes distances,
Ame de nos âmes,
ta Musique intérieure nage
comme le Cosmos en l’Esprit
d’Allah (swt) Le Bien-Aimé.
Tu tiens les mains de la Main
dans la protection et l’enchantement.
O! Douce Lumière Noire,
joyau de l’Egypte glorieuse antique,
toi, mystique de l’empire Songhai,
éclaire de nouveau ton continent
et perpétue l’effet miroir;
voilée comme le soir
ce n’est que toi que la Kabaah cache.
Mystère du Mysterieux Lui-Même,
re-envahis nous et scintille;
O Belle, O Beauté,
comme Rouh (as) dans sa paix,
tu retournes constamment en
ta Source tout en demeurant près
des deux hémisphères,
de par ton incandescence
durant des millénaires,
tu as parcouru la Terre entière
en tourbillons protégeants
les esprits véridiques convoités
par l’élite usurpatrice.
O, le voila l’anéantissement
du nouvel ordre mondial mensonger.
O, la voila la Voie libératrice
des prophètes (as) du Plus Elevé;
la Voie vers l’Amour, la Liberté et l’Unicité!

copyright 2007 Aïda Touré.

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MARUNDU’S THOUSAND VEILS 24″x30″ oil & acrylic on canvas

Marundu's Thousand Veils (c) 2008 Aida Toure

“O Allah, let us see things as they are.”
~ Prophet Muhammad (saw)
“And to Allâh belong the east and the west, so wherever you turn (yourselves or your faces) there is the Face of Allâh (and He is High above, over His Throne). Surely! Allâh is All-Sufficient for His creatures’ needs, All-Knowing.”
2:115 ~Qur’an

Description: this piece was inspired from this poem. The “Veil” theme externally relates to the modesty of women, a custom that disturbs many materialists but which has been observed worldwide in many noble traditions for eons. Also there is a deeper meaning to the “Veil” theme here: unceasantly, the veils that conceal the mysteries of existence lift themselves for the soul to dance through and to revel in its pure state of bliss. The reverence of wise souls come from the beholding of this divine reality… In my maternal culture, “Marundu” is the name of a Princess which is in this context an allegory for the soul as it innately is royal due to its properties, attributes, origin and its capability to move beyond limits… this painting developed gently in a dreamlike way.

~ Marundu’s Thousand Veils ~

Bismillah, Love compels us
to circle in bliss like
the universe and its spheres.
We mingle with every atom

that exists only to entice the soul
to its Beloved. Come, let us
meet on the edge of Al Fatiha!
Come and hear the Music of Light,

Let us dangle from Inertia,
palms upon the ground
like the Christ (as),
we bow in Islam,

secrets interwoven with secrets
we endure Al Khidr’s (as) company,
our hearts leaping from body to body
we gather around the Word,

we are these lovers whose existence reveals
the thousand veils Marundu wears.
Lo! The Moon begins its praises of The Divine:
“Al hamdulillah il rabil alamin!

I curve in silver to lit
the awakened lovers
upon their prayer mats,
their lips upon the angels’

as suras unite all creation
women reflect Mary’s (as)
universal style, institutions
aim to ban modesty, still

the light envelops humanity
with its infinite kisses.”
Suddenly we long to retreat,
Somebody else will continue this…

copyright 2007 Aïda Touré.

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