Monday Dose of Inspiration: Shirin Sahba

I am back with Monday inspirations because it's been too long and it's a great thing to have something to look forward to...so with great joy and with much longing I bring you today, this painting by Shirin Sahba.

I have been keeping it to myself for too long. I spy on it a lot. I am in love with her work, it's true: the minute and delicate details that make up whole undulating fields of sheer rich color, the beautiful modern twist on miniature painting which reminds me of the lyrical characters of the Indian ragmalah paintings that I love, and a connection to absolute joy I feel whenever I look at any one of her paintings-it's so...pure. But this one...this one. If I owned it, I'd hang a hook in every room in my house so I could take it with me from room to room.

a detail from "Catching a Flight"

Maybe it's because it's called "Catching a Flight" or because the ground consists of many little birds chattering away in anticipation or because the figures are so elegant, from the golden age of air travel, yet Shirin makes that golden age somehow seem current and ...possible. She tenderly breathes a life into her big vast worlds and I feel very much a part of it. If it's not possible for me to ever own this painting, I will always know what it's like to be very deeply in love with a work of art, not just because it seduced me, it didn't--it's because I believed it actually loved me back. And love like that doesn't come around that often...

a sketch by Shirin

*I may start a fund on the sidebar called: donate to Deb's need to have Shirin's painting so that she may feel joy and inspiration every waking minute and can thereby bring you a better more vibrant and talented Deb...any thoughts?)
** Request for Shirin to show us more moleskin drawings s'il vous plait.
***all (incredible) images by Shirin Sahba