Tales from The b.a.SKET: Black Art Sketches for the Contemporary Art Lover

By D. Amari Jackson

This week, we reach into the b.a.SKET and pull out the magic, innocence, and clarity of a child’s view…

“Little Girl Angel” by Deborah Shedrick 18 x 24 inches acrylic painting on watercolor paper (2019)– unframed

“Each piece of my art is a love letter I have written to you,” once stated gifted artist, Deborah Shedrick. “When my art speaks to you and you are touched, my creative process is complete.”

Viewing Little Girl Angel by Shedrick not only touched me, but reminded me of a magical moment, a bird’s eye view I experienced years ago, From My Balcony…

I stepped out on my balcony to get away from that loathsome box of bits and bytes absorbing all my energies, to clear my head, to reclaim my spirit, and to observe anything I was supposed to…

I viewed the normal activities ─ people entering and exiting faux-brick porticos protruding like overbites from various three-story, Gable-roofed complexes; colorful vehicles darting about the lot below; parents sitting patiently on wooden benches surrounding a central playground as young ones scream, mount and slide upon the brightly-colored apparatus whose magic tragically fades with age…

I live on the third floor. I desired a lofty view of the sun pulling back its covers from the eastern horizon each morning to begin anew and rise upon its cyclical trajectory to claim, at its pinnacle, the Holiest of Holies, before descending toward the ancient realm of the Duat where dreams and spirits perpetually prepare the way for what will come forth by day…

I’m always fascinated by how people seldom look up to see what’s above them. Instead, they’re consumed by their lower selves, their daily materialistic “reality” that holds them hostage and perpetuates their obsession with the physical. Rarely, will anyone lift their eyes to notice me watching them, quietly, from my third-floor perch…

But children live in a different world than we. They have yet to be conditioned by the physical; they have yet to turn their souls over to the Takers, the ones who keep us from the Light, block us from our own Divinity, ensure our dependency upon them, and ensure we don’t keep our heads to the sky where our true selves are reflected…

A precious little girl, not more than two, in a car seat driven by her mother rolled along the parking lot below. She saw me and watched every step of the way. She knew my soul because I couldn’t hide it from her, as adults commonly attempt to do. She sat up in her chair, pointed and smiled at me, as if confirming, “I see you… even though no one else can.”

That kind of magic, that kind of beauty, that kind of purity is what I hope for. Few can see it. They’ve abandoned their ability to do so long ago. Perhaps it was a tragic event, or a failed relationship, or one of the many hardships that life can bring…

But as I grow older, I now overstand my true goal is to become more childlike, at least in vision and spirit, so I can always see beyond the physical, witness the magic of every day, receive what’s above me when no one else can…

This is the kind of life I strive to live. This is the kind of relationship I strive to have. Beyond the physical. People sometimes meet for the first time not recognizing their souls have already met long ago, perhaps in another time, in another cycle. For just as the sun rises and renews itself each morning, so do souls…

And I know this to be true because a beautiful and magical little girl looked up at me on my balcony from her car window, smiled at me, and reminded me that it is.

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Amari Jackson is a creator, author, TV/web/film producer, and award-winning journalist. He is author of the 2011 novel, The Savion Sequence; creator/writer/coproducer of the 2012-2014 web series The Book Look; writer/coproducer of the 2016 film Edge of the Pier; and current writer/coproducer of Listen Up! on HBCU GO/Roku TV. He is a former Chief of Staff for a NJ State Senator; a former VP of Communications & Development for the Jamestown Project at Harvard University; and a recipient of several writing fellowships including the George Washington Williams Fellowship from the Independent Press Association. An active ghost writer, song writer, martial artist, and journalist, his writings have appeared in a wide variety of national and regional publications.

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