Feels #7: Calida Rawles

I haven't written about art in a while but recently stumbled across this work and I remembered how it made me feel the first time I saw at a gallery in Miami.  Every water-filled cell in my cancerian body stood at attention, perhaps in a deep knowing of what it means to surrender and what Margaret Atwood articulated beautifully when she said,

"Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does."

I remain in awe of how art can help us access deeper truths that lie dormant within us. The artist, Calida Rawles manages to simultaneously create these wonderful hyperrealistic paintings of beautiful black bodies at ease whilst showing us how water can heal, glisten, reflect light, resemble shimmering diamonds. Looking at it again, I wonder...if we are part-water, then perhaps we too have  within us an innate ability to be LIGHT. To even consider this, brings tears to my eyes. Water AGAIN.