Amateur Amalgam

This piece has been hung up in my room so nicely for so long that I completely forgot I was the one who did it. I didn’t set out to make is specifically either. While browsing through Michael’s, I walked into the wood burning section, and I thought to myself that I should try it again. I did wood burning in high school, but I didn’t own any of the tools at home so I never did it again after. I figured now was as good a time as any to pick it back up.

I didn’t get it right away though, I wanted to have an idea of what I wanted to make first. So I went home and started googling different beginner friendly projects I could take on. As is the case with theses things, I got sidetracked pretty soon after that and found myself looking through Arabic poetry. One in particular gave me an idea. It’s lines are taken from the second part of a poem by Syrian journalist and author Ghada Al-Samman called أشهد بأصابع الأشجار (I swear on the limbs of the trees)

These lines are also sometimes accompanied by additional lines that are actually 2 verses below it, the first part is the part that I saw first though, and thats the part that I used in my piece

وكنا سهمين متعاكسي الاتجاه

And we were two arrows (moving) in opposite directions

وكان لا مفر من الوداع كما اللقاء

inevitable was the meeting and inevitable was the farewell

I knew that I wanted something relatively simple for this project, as I didn’t know how difficult it would be to get back in the grove of things (and I didn’t want to accidentally burn a plaque and have to scrap it). Eventually I came up with the idea of the poem surrounding a cherry blossom branch and I started putting together the different elements that I would need.

I chose the cherry blossom because it symbolizes the impermanence of life; they bloom so brilliantly, but only for a short time, and I thought this captured the feeling of those lines really well. I also made sure to include falling blossoms, to show that time is up for this particular bunch. I decided to make them purple instead of pink for two reasons

1. To more closely resemble plum blossoms
2. Colour symbolism

Plum blossoms bloom before cherry blossoms, and as such symbolize hope – since they bloom just as the winter ends. That also ties into the poem, in that it references the feelings that come in the first part of the second and third lines

I found you…

and loved you…

The dots of yellow/gold serve the same purpose, as yellow is generally a happy colour and can represent hope. At the same time it is a colour for mourning in many cultures. Light purple (like inside the flowers) is associated with spring time and romance, but dark purple (on the outside of the flowers) is a colour for widows in some places. So too is the white on the inside of the petals, mixed into the light purple; once again evoking a sense of loss. Each of the colours has a meaning that captures both sides of what the author is feeling.

I decided to go with the English translation instead of the original Arabic, bit I still wanted to give a nod to the original, so I found a font that resembled Arabic script and used that for the poem. I designed the way that I wanted it to look and copied the design onto the piece of wood that I had picked out using carbon paper. After that it was just a matter of using the burner and tracing along the pattern. I made the words deeper than the central flowers and painted just the flowers

And thats it! I think it came out really well, and I enjoyed the entire process very much. It only took me a day to put it all together after I had bought all the stuff I needed. I’m definitely gonna try this style again with another poem. Maybe I’ll make it a series, that’ll be fun 🥰