This Exact Feeling
When words aren't enough, the colors speak
Basheera Abdulsalam’s studio challenge is this, don’t think too much, let the brush do some of the talking.
I randomly met a type of weight that seems to sit on my chest, way before I reach for my journal, pencils to sketch, or even before the brush touches the surface. It’s the kind of feeling that stays secret, silent, wordless and heavy, until a brush finally finds it.
I now realize that some feelings don’t need or want advice. They don’t need to be analyzed, solved, or talked through. They just want a canvas to be expressed through movement, a painting, or a sketch. No long speeches necessary.
Sometimes I don’t know what I’m trying to say until the colors start speaking for me.
This face wasn’t planned. I didn’t set out with a blueprint for these eyes or the shape of the shadow. But the feeling? The feeling was entirely planned. It emerged as a face that says an emotion my heart instantly recognizes without needing an explanation.
This is why I paint. To give form to the spaces inside me, and to let the canvas speak when words seem to not be enough.
Is there a feeling you’ve carried recently that couldn’t quite find its words?
set it free.
write, sketch, paint, draw, make something.
Abi Ocia’s Offering, and Running are art in song form btw. goosebumps<3