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 a reflective piece and the ongoing quest for meaning and resolution…

I often go silent, for I’ve learned not to question; at least not those of life’s challenges best answered by time, by pain, by Spirit… for The Path is The Path.

And while I sometimes struggle to remind myself of life’s beauty, I try to invoke the beauty of life’s struggle ─ the quest for meaning, the pursuit of Light, the bittersweet signposts along the way…

The Path is often counterintuitive. The challenges that make you wanna holla are the ones best managed by serenity, by silence. And though it’s sometimes hard to process, it is not my place to question Her divine reason, to doubt Her divine purpose, for the answers were forged long ago, the geometry is still sacred, and the Flower of Life spirals onward in cycles of promise, of beauty, of resolution…

Indeed, nature hosts our solace; the mountain is our temple, the trees, our congregation. And just when I doubt its larger meaning, a gentle breeze, a divine, maternal touch warms my face, renews me, and lets me know She is always there guiding me, buoying me, lifting me upon Her ancient Afrikan wings, landing me in a softer place…

For The Path is The Path. And until I can know the answers to questions much older than me, I will wait quietly, patiently, for Time to clarify my journey, for Submission to soothe my pain, and for Silence to show me the way.

——–

With Reflecting by the River, surrealist-abstract painter, Cedric Michael Cox, takes us on a natural journey to find ourselves.

“Reflecting by the River” by Cedric Michael Cox 60 x 48 inches, acrylic painting on canvas — unframed

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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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