New Year...

Glossy filter on the left and without on the right.

This is not a trite and cliched new year post inasmuch as it bears the words. It is about the time I suffered an acute bout of FOMO (fear of missing out) over the influx of Christmas cards on social media during the festive season.

The beauty, creativity and thoughts put into releasing the final product in true spirit of the season not only lifted my mood but had me reaching for the pencil a couple of times. It is that unabated excitement and flow of creative juices that heralded the decision to come up with something personal for New Year's. 

It took me 3 days to settle on the lettering and another 2 for color. After the pencil sketch was done, the finishing touches were more or less a walkover!

Coming a cross filter that gave it the glossy and sparkly finish was quite the feather in my cap! It brought my vision to light and got me so excited that waiting for the remaining days and five minutes after midnight on the 31st almost dampened my mood.

The feedback after the reveal was insane! Thinking about it, right now, warms my heart! 

A fortnight into 2017 and there's nothing much I can say except Alhamdulilah. For the gift of life, for the new dreams we get to dream after fulfilling old ones and the opportunities that drive us to discover our potential and become the people we desire to be.

Life may not be perfect right now; but it is absolutely alright!

A Little Sun

There are times when I visit old posts of Simply Shanah in search of inspiration only to log out immediately for the urge to delete some of last year's posts is so strong. There was nothing good there. Going back and looking through them is like trying to find the remnants of a kindling in a pile of ashes: a little smoking ember to singe ones fingers. However fruitless my attempts are in finding inspiration from the depths of my pitfalls and the decision to let it all remain, I have realized some of my angst ridden and painfull posts are being shared. It is kind of mortifying but I am happy some of you relate with the posts and go as far as sharing. Thank you.
I put away the journal in order to revitalize my thoughts, sense of purpose all for naught. Nothing has worked so far. You, know what? I am not going to try anymore. To force myself to look for what is good in a situation however bad is no longer cutting it.
My mental state is a depiction of my life right now. Everything is in shambles. As much as I am incapable of having a handle on everything else currently going on, I am glad for my artistic side. I find myself drawing more and more when the mood strikes and the accessories creator in me is starting to join the creative party. It has been awhile since I created something in the way of accessories.
My last piece was a pearl necklace which I spot majority of the time and the need to create earrings to go with it is so strong. Maybe when the time is right. It will happen.

Seeing it is a new month; may we all let what was stay in the past and write new chapters to the books of our lives- even if it means forever starting over in your journal like I am currently doing.

Happy!

I've written a few posts on my mental space that ended up being lost in transit. I literally have no idea as to where they went on publication because they certainly didn't make it on the blog.

Due to those circumstances, I find myself lost for words. I can't express myself anymore than I should hence the decision to share a drawing from the pages of my journal.

I drew it to help me get back into the swing of things- creatively and on the spur of the moment I added what are probably my resolutions for this year, God Willing.

I may not know a lot at the moment but what I do know deep down is I want to be happy this year.

Anyway, happy new year and may God give us all the courage and strength to see our resolutions to fruition. Ameen.

Beauty In Ugly

I love saying that I never have thoughts during the creation process and for that matter cannot honestly tell anyone what inspired a piece. There is usually nothing to tell because most of my pieces never ever have back stories. They are simply the results of an imaginative mind.
However, this particular piece has a story. A story I didn’t want to share until a friend of mine asked when my next blog post would be. His question made me reflect on the draft hence the decision to share. To show that sometimes; it is OK to fall apart. To feel like the loneliest soul in the world without anyone to see you through except yourself. So, here goes nothing.
Her misfortune was being worked on during the most tumultuous weeks of my life! A week in which I was dealing with the intense pain of a sprained shoulder, a week where my emotions were in an upheaval, a week where I wished for my brother’s presence like I have never done in my life and intermittently wept like a bereaved person with wracking sobs to match.
On that fateful day; I took her out of the work-in-progress pile and went to work. Black was the color of choice given the situation and mind frame. I filled up the white space taking care not to mar her looks and the design which made her unique.

All she could do was purse her pink lips and take what I had to offer-pain, sorrow and emotional chaos. She was left without choice for she couldn’t talk back. She knew her creator needed to try and keep it together and this was the only way she knew how. After my emotions were spent, I put her away. To be worked on another day; when the mood struck.
Luckily for her, I took her out for inspection, in a better frame of mind no less. I looked at her with a critical eye trying to find the imperfections and irreparable damage my chaotic emotions had wrought. But most of all; it was to check how black suited her because no color does justice to feelings and thoughts like black.

I looked at her through the lens of a camera and seeing her stare at me with her pursed pink lips nudged my heart a little. I felt guilty for making her bear the brunt of my emotions yet she wasn’t the cause of it. Why continue to drown her in my sorrow? Thus, I gave her color. I wholeheartedly tried to bring her to life the way she was originally meant to by putting an effort into making her pretty. In an attempt to make up for the marks of sorrow she could not hide.
However, even in color: she smacks of so much pain and sorrow. The sorrow in her eyes alone is incomparable to the darknss in the lines on her face. In her lies the proof of her creator's hardest lesson in life - a lesson she failed at miserably. And for that; she will forever be the reminder of that lesson and the memories that come with it.