Category: acrylic

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: This painting symbolizes the dissolution of the ego with the inner ambrosia that follows… the poem that inspired it can be read here
Year of Creation: 2005

~ Honey-Existence ~

In the presence
of the Friend,
be quiet.

Should you know
of His eloquence,
assume a death:

the one which has
countless resurrections,
you know, the sunlit one!

Those who deeply are
in Love do that, they
open the seven windows

inside their being and in
the waiting, they die, silently
till the mystic wind begins

to circulate, lo! They bask
in the exquisite exchange,
it rocks them like the Word

rocks the heavenly stars;
in that sacredness,
their souls exude a cry

“al hamdulillah!
We are sanctified.”

Then some passers-by
intrigued by the joyful sobs
approach, to inquire about

the cause of that high
and the lovers ever-kind,
whisper through the ether,

“become complete now
before the Friend,
Separate not your will
from His. Surrender as
if you don’t mind being
killed by a softness,
by a wandering tenderness,
this way, you shall know
the same honey-existence.”

(from Nocturnal Light)

2007 copyrights Aida Toure

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: The “Inner Palace” is the space which unfolds after we have conquered our ego and all its turbulence. It is the hidden palace where only the Divine Presence reigns to guide us toward the accomplishment of our appointed, individual tasks in this life… read more

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
This piece was inspired by the Prophet Muhammad’s (saw) Miraj or Ascension, the nightly journey through which he met the other prophets’ (as) of God and prayed with them. This painting is also one of my favorite because it opens up to the Messengers’ (as) oneness.
Year of Creation: 2005

~The Prophets’ Gathering~

The breath of Allah (swt) in you,
your heart swells with Love,
whirling in seven directions
to attune its own chords
to the cosmic flute-playing
Ruh (as) echoes through
everything like this:
“Welcome to ourselves!
This is the sign of the Return!”
I, broken loose to those words,
gesture in orange-silver like
the night sky that witnesses
the nocturnal gatherings
of prophets (as) and saints.
After this, no more station of being…

© 2006 Aïda Touré

(14″ x 11″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: The pure heart’s buoyancy.
Year of Creation: 2005

Description: 18″x24″ acrylic on canvas panel. “Zuhrtime Beads” represents the inner spectacle that can occur when one practices the ritual of Surrender, Zikr and praising of The Divine which all stir the soul to some ecstatic dance we can’t fathom … The whirling energy of this painting captures our harmony with the spheres and the secret activity of all surrendered atoms of the Creation. Read the poem below.
Year of Creation: 2006

~ Zuhrtime Beads ~

We are beads in human form
abandoned here to whirling
and buoyancy,
we perform

for the sake of Love
just like the planets,
the Sun and Jesus’ heart (as).

We are beads,
revolving at Zuhrtime
in Remembrance of our
union with The Divine.

© 2007 Aida Toure

Description: The Black Hole 18″x24″ was published in the textbook “Imaginez“.

This piece developed from the poem Black Hole I wrote in 1999. The term Black Hole here is multidimensional and thus transcends the region of space from which there is no return; it can be associated with the Breath or any current that pulls creation anew toward The All-Embracing.
Year of Creation: 2006.

~ Black Hole ~

In the black hole of breath
I daily disappear

to meld with inaudible waves
that take the form of poems

soon as I will to grace
any hand exuding calmness

a cyclone of light is set off
for the fortication of

starving human souls.
I ever embrace this globe

as the ink flows
I carry out the connection

with my zillion selves
who continue to ignore

that in the black hole of breath
I daily disappear

to become all that exists
until the abused essence of men

is restored and enhanced.

(from Unmanifest Poems)

© 2007 Aida Toure.

(18″ x 8″ acrylic on canvas)

Description: This piece was created from the poem Le Feminin Noir in celebration of the Divine Feminine in its Essence and all its manifest octaves.
Year of Creation: 2006

~ Le Feminin Noir ~

… Empreintes lumineuses,
Le Feminin Noir, principe pieux

Immanifeste comme le Elle de Dieu,
Nous sommes le Son sommeillant

En le regard de l’enfant.
Amour, subtilite et beaute

Toutes ivres en la Presence,
Les femmes couvent l’Essence

Comme une prosternation
Elles dissimulent la Proximite.

Qui se cherche se trouvera
En le Elle du Lui, Sa Majeste.

© 2007 Aida Toure

(18″ x 24″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: This painting evolved from and with this poem. I created this piece from a soft, captivating atmosphere of colors and scents … It deeply moved me.
Year of Creation: 2006

~ Fragrance of Light: Roland et Les Anges ~

I wander inward
to be with you,

and to smell
the fragrance

of your light,
it soothes me

and reveals
the Gentle Guide,

the concealed One.
I move to the breeze

of your sound
to save my heart

from the grief
of separation.

You make my ego
supple and it bows to

The Divine! Urged by
love, it vanishes.

That’s how deep
you move me out of

my self to know the
ambrosia of not-beingness.

© 2007 Aida Toure

(14″x11″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: when inflamed with divine love. “Inflamed” the poem can be read below. This piece was my very first acrylic painting on canvas panel so it is dear to me. Once one has known the inflamed presence of Love, it’s impossible to step away from it in order to sustain mundane standards based on the superficiality of materialism, social status and peripheral desires, the soul refuses to abide by them no matter the seductiveness created around them to make them seem most appealing. Surrender, music, virtue, beauty, compassion, mastery of oneself are truly the gems every soul deserves to be exposed to, there is no appeal in any phenomena deprived of their primordial, pristine harmony. Everything has been tainted and stifled by the domination of the ego on this earth, it will remain so until the heart gets polished anew to shine like a mirror that reflects its light source, and not just for the sake of appearance but for the sake of Love itself, which is unconditional, timeless, ascending~

Year of Creation: 2005

~ Inflamed ~

Carpets of precious words
intermingle in a song
Dawood’s (as) harp sung,

stroked by the breath of Ruh (as),
strings perfectly loose
to fit the latitude of Love,

their Sound pervades our pulse
lo! we enter unseen worlds,
Zaboor in our hearts,

continuously we fall
from the divine lips
as “Kun” is revealed,

we lean on the prophets (as),
our cheeks against theirs,
now Injeel’s pages flutter by

and then the Qur’an’s follow,
each, clothed with
the Light of Ramadan;

look, the Sun is up in
the middle of the night,
Who can take more of this?!

The galaxy slips in our chest,
lo! We expand, mouths full
of our own dancing souls:

“we are inflamed with you,
O Beloved, our whirling atoms
on the edge of not-being,

now we shed our form:
Reality upon Reality,
Heaven tastes like this!”

© 2006-2007 Aïda Touré

(14″ x 18″ acrylic on canvas panel)
Description: This piece is in homage to the feminine, regenerating properties of the Sun. The sacred Harp concept here accompanies the healing function of the Sun. The painting’s movements relate to the effect of Harp’s sounds upon noble souls who are systemically forced into exclusion… which eventually leads to Revolution.
Year of Creation: 2006