{"id":1941,"date":"2010-09-16T08:46:57","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T16:46:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=1941"},"modified":"2012-11-20T14:36:05","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T22:36:05","slug":"flow-of-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/16\/flow-of-humanity-1941\/","title":{"rendered":"The Flow of Humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on September 16, 2010 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Salma Arastu stands in the Regina K. Stafford meeting room in the main branch of the Alameda Free Library, surrounded by 23 of her paintings on the theme of \u201cthe flow of humanity.\u201d She tells her audience, \u201cWhatever you follow, we\u2019re all following one God.\u201d She refers to a piece in her slide show that includes a line from the Koran stating that God wants us to live together in compassion.<\/p>\n

\"\"

"Sufi series I"<\/p><\/div>\n

Arastu speaks of contending with multiple labels. She was born Hindu and converted to Islam when she married. She is physically \u201chandicapped,\u201d having been born without fingers on her left hand. And she is a woman. According to her website<\/a>, this gives her a \u201cunique opportunity to create harmony and world transformation through the expression of the Universal in her art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arastu was born in India, and lived in Iran and Kuwait before coming to the United States in 1987. Recently she moved to Berkeley and says, \u201cEast Bay has been good for me. They respect diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oil, gesso, and pen and ink on board or canvas, some paintings are inhabited by beings that resemble bipedal sharks, or figures represented primarily by looping lines inspired by Arabic calligraphy, and which connect them symbolically. Arastu says that what these beings are is a mystery even to her. This body of work spans from 1993 to 2008 and represents her transition from abstract to figurative painting.<\/p>\n

\"\"

"I Found You All around Me"<\/p><\/div>\n

One piece with these \u201clyrical lines,\u201d as she calls them, is \u201cI Found You All Around Me.\u201d This painting depicts more than a dozen dancing couples, and tells the story of Krishna appearing in many incarnations to dance with each and every village maid. Each thinks he is dancing only with her, suggesting the possibility of a personal relationship with God. She said that having been born Hindu, she can\u2019t deny the image of Lord Krishna in her work.<\/p>\n

Arastu cites folk art among her influences, which is evident in the details embedded in \u201cThe Promise\u201d and \u201cThe Tree and the Shadow.\u201d She also credits the composition of miniature paintings. But although inspired by this ancient tradition, Arastu also embraces modern technology. Recent work not on display includes images manipulated in Photoshop to combine her paintings and photographs, a process she thoroughly enjoys.<\/p>\n

\"\"

"The Tree and the Shadow" (detail)<\/p><\/div>\n

She also began sculpting in the past few years, wanting her paintings\u2019 \u201chappy dancers to be in reality.\u201d With modern technology, she has only to draw these images, and the metal is cut by laser. One of her sculptures, an eight-foot-tall piece of public art, goes on display in San Diego later this month.<\/p>\n

Her reception was held September 8, just days before the anniversary of the 9\/11 terrorist attacks. She was greatly affected by that tragedy and felt, \u201cas an artist, I had to contribute something.\u201d She painted \u201cThe Tragedy Is Not Over Yet,\u201d almost eight feet wide, twice the size of the work currently on display.<\/p>\n

As a Jew, I was supposed to be at temple the evening of the reception celebrating Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. But listening to this Muslim artist speak about her response to 9\/11 and \u201cthe universal spirit that unites humanity,\u201d I felt like I could not have spent the evening in a more spiritual way.<\/p>\n

The exhibition runs through September 25. The library is located at 1550 Oak Street. The Regina K. Stafford Meeting Room is open during library hours, which are noon to 8 p.m. Monday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.<\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on September 16, 2010 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor. Salma Arastu stands in the Regina K. Stafford meeting room in the main branch of the Alameda Free Library, surrounded by 23 of her paintings on the theme of \u201cthe flow of humanity.\u201d She tells her audience, \u201cWhatever you follow, we\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,6],"tags":[73,222,217,72],"class_list":["post-1941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-events","tag-alameda","tag-alameda-free-library","tag-salma-arastu","tag-the-island"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-vj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1969,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions\/1969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}