copyright 2010 ava sharifian

Have you ever had the experience of a quiet mind where you aren't identifying with your thoughts — you're not thinking about your life situation, your problems, fears, or worries? When painting I am aware of how much noise is in my head and I am learning to experience freedom from the noise. Painting demands my full attention and teaches me how to be aware of silent space. The mind chatter is still going, but I am not consumed by it. Loud thoughts become observable white noise, like a radio that is on in the corner of the room. Painting is a miraculous experience because it is from this quiet space that paintings emerge — a spontaneous creation that comes through me.

Ramesh Balsekar said that "art is the grandchild of God." What that means to me is that artists are the womb, the mother, or the vehicle which births the art and that there is a Source from which it all comes. As an artist I feel honored and responsible for bringing art into the world in hopes that it will make a difference to someone. I do not feel that I own or posses the art, like parents do not own their children, but I am moved to inspire the experience of beauty in others and have the art enrich their lives.