In order to record such a vision, I have to take a simple approach to forms and items, as the elements of the Earthly scene become more complex and its colors more intertwined. Figures relinquish their undulations, and colors converge, proclaiming their association with distinction. Thus clay becomes the main key to form and color.

Endowed with Eastern cultural roots, I develop such kinds of vision against a background of Eastern philosophy that abounds with fascinating flashes concerning the meaning of creation and creativity. God alone is the creator, the inventive. Man is a mere imitator. Thus I opine that the colored planes and forms applied by the artist on his panel are simply obtuse imitations o nature’s genius. Why do we not simply cut the route short and try to portray nature in its formations and colors the way it is?

Creation is MAKING, namely creating without reference to a previous example; it is production in the absolute sense of the word, whether using an already existing matter or without it. To quote the Arab philosopher Ibn Rushd, " A term exists; it was made from another thing, through the work of a creator and preceded by time. This is the case of the matter, whose substance we perceive through the senses. In the final analysis, it is a relationship between the Creator and the world. It is a relationship between One and the many, between the Constant and the variable, the Immaterial and the material."

I shape my work in a systematic way. I compare things and happenings without subjecting such acts of comparison to a purpose. In this context, spontaneity is more like Sufism; personal dispositions, desires and sensuousness are all renounced. All around us is deemed incidental and ephemeral. Infinite austerity reflects spiritual asceticism. In a related fashion, raw materials and substance are used only at a minimum level hen the artistic work is made. When there is a geographical change, I enjoy moving with the vision vertically and not horizontally. This would give a new dimension, whereby all forms viewed from above look like dots. The dot is the basis of everything and the essential block of formation. Here I am talking about a fairly divergent perspective. Viewing figures and undulations through such a perspective, I move to a zone where I can get closer to the truth, as I attempt to comprehend shapes ad forms. In such a one there is no room for transient desires. Hence creation becomes even more difficult to comprehend. This eternal subject has never been explained. Comparison, therefore, has a real claim to interpreting the process in our world. Al these processes, however, are superficial compared with the depth inherent in the act o real creation.

Artistic work produces only an approximation of what really is in nature. Therefore, direct presentation of the crude material or form has more effect on the viewer than that produced by the chemical colors or other materials used to produce the work of art in order to represent what originally exists in nature. I believe, furthermore, that, by insisting on finding crude matter to represent, the artist is only attempting to immortalize himself/herself though his /her work.

AL OBAIDI