Celebration of Calligraphy

Projects

Celebration of Calligraphy This series of paintings is created to enlighten and awaken the spiritual connection of universal humanity through lyrical and fluid imagery of Arabic Calligraphy and Islamic patterns reflecting the positive and universal message of Al-Quran to the world. My purpose is to reach out to a broad community in the pursuit of peace; to celebrate diversity and create a positive interfaith dialogue through visual art that subtly penetrates the human heart to evoke response.

By Salma Arastu

Testimonials and Praise

Prayers of Oneness in the Art of Salma Arastu. The work Salma has produced for this exhibition is elegant and arresting. She successfully melds traditional design motifs, contemporary abstraction, and the most exquisite calligraphy into works that can speak to anyone willing to listen and see. One need not be of the same faith, or any particular faith, to get the message. We are one. So I learn from Salma’s artful prayers.

If much contemporary art has largely abandoned any hope of influencing reality or elevating its audience, Arastu’s art pays us the compliment of assuming that we want a better world and will gladly and even joyfully do the work, spiritual and otherwise.

Drawing on her Hindu and Muslim background, and combining expertise in Arabic calligraphy with Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting, Salma Arastu creates large, evocative canvases that invite viewers into quiet contemplation on texts from the Quran, the poet Rumi, and other sources.

Her art of calligraphy is a prayer generated from a mindful yielding to the Divine. The works are made in humility by one whose life is centered in God. Salma Arastu’s creations are not Promethean; rather, they evidence the artist’s submission to God. And so they become an invitation to us: to find our own center, to recognize the presence of the Holy within ourselves, and to realize the very gift of creativity we are invited to express.

Finally, her work exemplifies a deep appreciation for the inter-religious potential for artistic communication. All three traditions develop the theme of divine beauty at length and in many ways, and Salma has incorporated thematically parallel Biblical and Qur’anic texts in a number of her works. But she has also dipped into her Indian cultural heritage by integrating even evocative Sanskrit religious texts – in exquisite calligraphy – in several pieces.

Copy of MOCRA installation-8

MOCRA installation-16

MOCRA installation-13

MOCRA installation-12

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MOCRA installation-15

MOCRA installation-6

MOCRA installation-14