Painting “Kemet Incandescence” on Lonnie Plaxico’s New CD “Ancestral Devotion”

Lonnie Plaxico’s new album entitled “Ancestral Devotion” has just been released. It is an incredibly rich Jazz record that I think anyone who is into spiritual culture would enjoy, you may listen to excerpts of this gem and purchase it here. I must say there is one track on the CD that particularly moved me deep, it is “Nile River Valley”…  I did the painting “Kemet Incandescence” for “Ancestral Devotion” album cover. The creation of the piece was very much influenced by Africa’s ancient art; the painting process was quite an experience as it has allowed me to celebrate the sacred feminine in my African cultures in another way which I want to delve deeper into… you may see the entire painting and read more about it here.

[rockyou id=136562140&w=426&h=320]

Lonnie Plaxico at work:

Away from the Periphery of Being

There always comes a time when one must leave one’s lower self in order to embrace one’s true being, the higher self. When the soul longs to manifest its beauty, it is shattering, no one can resist it so it pulls one to its experience of constant merging with the Divine Reality: Bliss in its purest form. There is such glory to existing away from the periphery of being to near the Center, and delve deeper into who we are instead of existing distracted by surface illusions that desensitize us and even oppress our spiritual sense. The soul fiercely is averse to dis~harmony, chaos, false hierarchy, corruption, compulsion and any kind of oppression which unfortunately all characterize the many structures of our dimension… yet for those who are uncomfortable with all these structures, they must be fought with love and patient resolution. I think the more we evolve, the more obsolete these structures become and the less they will be able to sustain this cultural out-of-tuneness imposed upon mankind for centuries; we do not exist somewhere outside of Universal Law, we are not exempt of the responsibility that comes with being a particle of a cosmic, purposeful whole. We are not stagnant forces numbed by the schemes of falsehood; we are consciousness, always evolving toward knowing its Source anew and manifesting this knowingness which implies constant change, evolution, revolution with all the attributes revealing themselves in that sacred, loving process which makes life magnificent!

(c) 2009 Aïda Touré

Art is Bliss’ Remnants

Al hamdulillah il rabil al Amin, Art is a quiet revering of The Hidden… through the intimacy of creativity, we trace the unknown yet the nearest, wholeheartedly, without any condition nor any usual man-made boundary, we celebrate The Most Sublime who left imprints of Herself/Himself through our breath. Art reveals itself to adorn the journey of the spiritually aware, the humble seekers, the refined lovers; those ones who have learned to vanish and re~appear through the Veil woven between matter and pure spirit… Art is the soul’s whisper relating of the glimpses it captures amid its immersion in Hu, Art is that sacred! The experience of such luxurious frenzy is for those who no longer have anything to say after some tender, unexpected Visit left them amazed! Those silenced ones who exist eyes and ears closed to allow the Eye and the Ear to relate of their pre~cosmic Glow. Art is for those whose senses flirt with Stillness and Breath, alternately… Art is Bliss’ remnants making themselves known to pull us even more toward the Unknown… Therefore we explore, allowing the invisible hand to lead us wherever it may…

(c) 2009 Aïda Touré