In Praise of the Artist

By Benedict Herrman

Full disclosure: This is an unabashed love letter about my wife, Aminah. Her creations throughout the years have been remarkable (see some samples, below) and there is one aspect of her work that I find particularly noteworthy — unlike many artists, she resists doing the same thing over and over again merely to sell her work.

You’ve seen those kinds of paintings in galleries, no doubt. Finely wrought English cottages, paintings of cute little dogs and cats, exquisitely detailed pastoral country scenes all looking essentially the same as the others in order to sell to a public more interested in decor than art. There are walls of them… attractive and functional but lifeless. I call it manufactured art, and there’s a lot of it out there.

Aminah has no interest in cranking out sellable work for the sake of financial gain. It’s not that she objects to selling her work, but that isn’t her focus. She creates by playing with ideas and feelings, trying different materials, challenging herself to keep pushing the boundaries of what she can do. She recently started working in cold wax mixed with oil paint. (See some samples, attached) and at the same time, creating a series of one-line drawings (where the pen is never lifted from the paper) called “An Angel A Day.” Every January, she challenges herself to create a picture or drawing every day – she calls it “30 in 30.” Why? To continue pushing herself to explore, not become stale, and most of all, to keep the ‘inner channel’ open to her source of inspiration.

Perhaps art at its finest is creation as an outcome of self-discovery, of learning who we are, what we’re feeling, how we see things, and urging ourselves to see things in ways that are different. It can be confrontational, angry, beautiful, mysterious, challenging and revealing, hopefully in ways that can touch others. If the artist is sincere — genuinely letting go of previously trodden paths to monetary gain but instead listening to the inner voice, the “whisper of the jiwa” Bapak spoke of so often, then the magic can happen and the flow of creative energy that comes from deep within us can emerge. It is then that creating becomes a sacred act in itself — the artist feels it when it happens, and knows that when that inner door opens, art becomes an act of worship.

To view some of Aminah’s beautiful artworks, scroll through the mini gallery below