Body, mind, spirits and soul
Published:Sunday | February 24, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Amitabh Sharma, Contributor
Feea, Daughter of Zion, is a free spirit, one with the elements, talking to nature - the trees and the birds and connecting to the cosmic energy with her mortal soul.
A painter,
songwriter, and humanitarian, Feea attributes her being as the will of
the Almighty.
"My work is the act of God," this
intuitive artist says. "My fingers move automatically, they don't have
any definitive theme they are working on."
Her art is
an eclectic mix of lines and circles, entwined as if a forest with faces
emerging on what could be perceived as leaves or branches. Flipping
through Feea's paintings, one sees a familiar pattern, but they tell a
different story.
"No two (paintings) are ever the
same. If you ask me what it is all about, it is impossible for me to
tell you what it is all about."
A free spirit, Feea
says she is not bound by the medium she uses to express her emotions. "I
use pencil, I use charcoal, I use anything that can draw," she says.
"You just pick up what you want to do without thinking what colour you
want to take on.
"When you finish and you turn it
around you see faces, and sometimes it takes days before you see the
faces.
"The faces," she elaborates, "signify that
spirituality is on earth now."
Feea has never put her
work - drawing, paintings and ceramics - for sale, though she has won
accolades in Jamaica, United States and Europe.
"I
have never sold any of my work. The British Museum gave me something,
which I used for a youth club but I didn't put a price on it," the
artist says.
Feea is a very strong proponent of
learning and discovering the Black culture and the way of life, which
she says, is the solutions to all the problems that Jamaica is facing.
"We need to be proud of ourselves. We, whether here or in Africa, are
doing bleaching and all those things because we don't want to be black.
The reason is that we don't know enough about
ourselves.
"It is important to know who we are and
where we come from," she says. "To get to know our roots, we cannot look
from the eyes of the others, we have to rediscover
ourselves.
"We don't have to follow those who have
enslaved, abused and accused us. We need laws of our own. We need to
respect other people's cultures as much as they are respecting
ours."
This, she says, can be attained by connecting
the nature and by acknowledging the blessings that have been bestowed on
Jamaica. "Do you know how blessed we are in this land? But we cannot
afford to lose that blessing; we need to rise.
"I know
there is a creating force out there whether we say Jah, God, Allah,
Jehovah ... it makes no difference."
The
limelight
Feea writes poems and worked with the reggae
band Third World. But even with credentials such as these, she prefers
to stay away from the limelight, and even refused to get her photograph
taken.
"I have been working silently; I don't want to
praise myself," she says. "I want the work to come out
now.
"I am not a label," she adds. "When you are a
label you are selling a product, I am not selling
anything."
A trained nurse working in a hospital in
London, Daughter of Zion says she got a spiritual awakening which made
her gravitate towards the arts. She says she started off by scratching
on paper till she realised that images were coming out. This was almost
40 years ago, and she has evolved into being a 'free spirit' converging
with nature.
"The faces, when I started painting, were
obscure, now they can be defined," Feea says.
Guided
by the spirit
She says she is guided by a spiritual
energy, which dictates to her what she must do, how she must do it and
when she must do it. "At this point in time, I am seeking peace for the
world and that's the picture I am painting," Daughter of Zion
says.
Through her paintings, mysticism and relentless
work, she wants the young people to benefit. "Let them be aware of who
they are and their capabilities - I have something which I call
activate, motivate and stimulate.
"Art is one of the
most sacred things," she adds. "My work is futuristic, very few will
understand it but the children, and they will be guided through my art
form."
Peaceful coexistence, she says, is that vital
ingredient that can make this world a better place. "I am for the
awakening of the people and saying to them, 'come on people, stop
killing each other'," Feea says.
"We need to respect
each other, no matter what race or colour we are, just show some
respect," the artist says, capturing her emotions in the lines of her
poem 'Peace'.
"Oh, oh, oh, Nations of the
World,
Wherever you
are,
Whatever colour, creed or
race,
Religious indifference, come
on, listen,
The birds are
singing,
The new song of the
time,
Peace to the
World,
Peace to the
World."
Photos
by Amitabh Sharma