!["The Promise" original abstract acrylic on canvas painting by Dublin-based artist Jaanika Talts.](http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/d4/d3/d4d395ab5702c4bab65333bc44fa0cad.jpg?itok=SBNOpQyi ""The Promise" original abstract acrylic on canvas painting by Dublin-based artist Jaanika Talts.")
To read part 1 of this special editorial by Aberjhani please click here. Part 2 with the accompanying poem begins now:
“The Universe said, ‘let me show your soul something beautiful.’”
––Aberjhani (from ELEMENTAL, The Power of Illuminated Love)
If emergent expressionism lends chromatic form and substance to in-between states of metamorphosis, then transformative impressionism may be described as endowing such stages of transition with metaphorical narrative. These are images by Jaanika Talts in which her literary inclinations are most apparent and they evoke a clear theme, scene, symbol, or principle.
The artist’s depictions of mythology’s (as well as history’s and literature’s) Venus and Cupid, The Siren’s Dream, Ophelia, and Salome are a few of the canvases and digital art compositions which borrow cues from classic stories. What makes them uniquely engaging is her own finely-honed perspective, which seems as culturally expansive as it is aesthetically versatile. She is equally comfortable with more contemporary references in the mode of Hollywood screen legends like Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardener, and Sophia Loren. Their images at her touch take on a quality of regal finish that is both innovative and archetypal.
Inspiration Begets Inspiration
With Talts’ ability to produce highly-original art which speaks as eloquently to the heart and soul as it does to the intellect, it is not surprising that her labors have begun to inspire efforts by creative talents in different mediums. The poet Richard Michael Parker has paired several poems with work by the artist. Videos on YouTube (and posted with this article) have both employed her art as background imagery and focused on the art itself as the video’s subject. The following original poem, titled Realms of Emerging Light (and written by this author) is presented in that same spirit of inspiration begetting inspiration. It is also shared in honor of the forthcoming World Poetry Day, March 21:
Realms of Emerging Light
(by Aberjhani)
Two galaxies of diamond-blue
take note of swirling opportunities
to share space inside a sacred moment.
Neither is able to resist
the melodic gravitational pull
of the other’s painted song.
They clash… at first.
Gently… at first.
Like the new worlds born before them.
Like the velvet tears of lions roaring love.
Closing the doors on one eternity
and opening dreams to another.
They occupy interstellar regions
like molten symphonies
cascading waves of acrylic starlight.
A fury of scattered radio frequencies
and anonymous mass, struggle, to form beauty --
churn into clouds of silver teal and early-dawn pink.
The gilded lines of a cosmic poem unfold
their naked themes warm against each other--
binary stars burn with the same radiant rhymes.
And the far-away constellation of a woman’s
mermaid eyes gives birth to the hungry drumming
of a man’s heart, coaxing his soul to breathe faith.
Solar winds glow with lunar delight as tentacles
of rainbow flame compress and explode
a new legend burning joy beneath the sun.
Spinning in realms of emerging Jaanikan light,
grace shapes itself into a jewel of destiny as
the maker and the made sing their shining ballads.
They transform a single diamond-blue kiss
into exploding blossoms of iridescent eons--
scenting the universe with luminous wonder.
For more on the art of Jaanika Talts and other contemporary artists, please see the links below.
by Aberjhani
co-author of Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
and ELEMENTAL The Power of Illuminated Love
More on Jaanika Talts and Other Contemporary Artists
- Sensualized Transcendence: Editorial and Poem on the Art of Jaanika Talts (part 1)
- Jaanika Talts Official Website
- Jaanika Talts and New Irish Artists
- Jaanika Talts on Facebook
- Living Art, Living Poetry: Essay on the Second Anniversary of ELEMENTAL
- Lowcountry Artists and Authors Featured in Gullah Christmas Show
- Expanding Legacies of Savannah’s Diaspora Marketplace Part 1
- Phil Starks’ Gaia Exhibit at Savannah State University
- The Gullah Art Genius of Allen Fireall
- Portrait of U.S. Southeast Artist Jerome Meadows
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