Luna: Nissa Raad

LUNA

“where the light is”

 By Nissa Raad

The pandemic affected me artistically. In the early days of quarantine, while being indoors and "in the city", I continued to paint my city paintings. As time progressed however, I started feeling very stuck, physically and mentally. Like others, I was craving travel and nature and wanted out of the city- literally and artistically. 

Many evenings during lockdown I would look at the moon and think how this mysterious orb lighting up the misty clouds on the horizon has always been part of our lives. No matter where you are on Earth, when you look up at the night sky and focus on our moon you realize that there are millions of other people doing the same thing. It connects the disconnected- people who you could not be with- and it binds us as humans.

So I left the city and flew to the moon.

As a mental astronaut I found myself experimenting with organic abstracts- creating imaginary natural settings and peaceful faraway places as a form of escape. Rock formations and celestial shapes appeared before me. Rock balancing has carried spiritual meaning across cultures for centuries- it is a form of meditation. Requiring patience, it results in perfectly balanced and calming displays- things which I aimed to emulate in my paintings.

In a very abstracted way I explored the concept of gravity- the invisible force that occurs between objects - using a wide variety of mediums and textural contrasts. There is a big focus on feel-good colors and I relied extensively and almost exclusively on collage.

Themes of mindfulness, patience, connecting, disconnecting and fighting gravitational forces that pull us down are things everyone has had to deal with recently. 

The moon has always had a role in keeping us connected, guided and lit- and just the like phases of the moon, this too shall pass.