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Rhythm & Feels II: Soulful, vol. 8, 2024. Mixed media on Fabriano. This is the 8th & last Rose in this series (see timeline for the rest or for context). God willing, I will honour my word with what I said I'd do with these & share other contemporary pieces I have in the works. I want to preface this with the following; this is not about me - at all - the Roses are an allegory. Why an allegory? Because nothing is as predictable as human depravity & human evil... I'm human too so I don't claim to be impune. What I do choose to do is make drawings of roses, so there's that... An allegory. How many different contexts can you visualise a rose in? Let's say love is a central subtext to this allegory... Follow me. A wreath. When you lay a wreath for a beloved with damask roses because; sentiment. When wreaths disappear [& what that means contextually]. A Rose growing amongst rubble, an allegory. When you can't send roses, or food - because it's blocked, can't walk to lay just a rose this time because it's censored... What's next, a fruit? But still see it coming a year early because human depravity is predictable, then knowing in spring that collective resources will be required because some things are self-evident; a rose. An allegory. But still finding a rose in a society that intentionally looks away, hide a rose behind your back to sneak up to your habibti with... The look on her face before you offer it to her & the reward in genuinely seeing what it means to her. Like the land it grew in; an allegory. Today, we document live-streamed. Before; film, before that lithography, not before a paint brush, but before that; engraving. An allegory, this rose. You can't say you didn't see it. They did it. They're doing it. Clearly this has nothing to do with a rose, unless it is subtext. I say all this to say: if you see these flowers in the physical, please remember that I am an abstract artist that used roses to make a visual impression & mark the occurrence of something world-altering. I hope you're also doing something. I pray you did something... 🌹🤍🖋️