We are nothing more than canvasses, let Mahmoud and Solomon paint indelible images on our collective canvasses tonight::

by Teddy Fikre  written: Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

We are born—all of us—a blank canvass barren of thought, intellect, behavior or preferences.  We are canvasses that are blank and white, waiting for artists by the name of mommy and daddy to ingrained into us—one paint stroke at a time—a picture of the world as they see it as they hope we are not equally tainted by the ugliness of the world.  You see, this is in the end the essence of humanity; we are a duality of positive forces and dark antimatter.  We are art work waiting to be painted; we are masterpieces being perfected by God while being tormented by dark forces.

 This is the reason I love artists so much, they are fathers and mothers of our conscience and our thoughts.  Through their paint brushes they speak of humanity and our loss of innocence; every since a caveman picked up a piece of chalk and decided to paint, us humans have been conveying through our art the state of our minds and our universe.  More than science, philosophy, law or spoken word, a canvass has held the key to our mind’s door and held ajar the window to our souls.  This is why art is indefinable while it stands indelible in our collective mentality.  Art is not a noun, it is more an adjective because there is no such thing as a profession of art—we are all artists if we choose it.  This is why art is not so much taught as it is imagined, I too am an artist who inspires to be the next Eskinder Girma even if my art work looks like that of a Eskinder’s kindergartner child while Eskinder—with each stroke of his brush—captured the very thought of God as he contemplated painting the canvass that we call the universe. 

It is with this in mind that I introduce you to an amazing artist that I know by the name of Solomon Asfaw.  Solomon is part and parcel of a renaissance of Ethiopian art that is taking place from Addis to Washington, DC. These awe-inspiring artists have done what few imagined they could do—they have gone from humble backgrounds in Bole or Wollo to be celebrated and hailed as conquering heroes in art studios around the world. I go on and on about Ethiopian culture and how—if we marketed ourselves a big more and start to reach outside of our community—Ethiopian culture would be celebrated world over and we would be richer for it as we feed our helpless children instead of depending on NGOs to do it for us. 

But I do not put artists in this category because artists promote themselves by their products.  I would have a hard time marketing an artist—even as I am attempting to do so now—because art promotes and markets itself.  I might have to sell you on the kitfo of one restaurant or another—but for the most part most kitfo is the same.  This is not true of art; each art and his/her work is unique and there is none like it in the world.  Forget snowflakes, art is the one medium where each masterpiece stands out different and there is none elsewhere in the world like it.  Kitfo is ubiquitous, but art is unique and distinctive—there is none like it each time one is painted. 

I learned this first hand a long time ago, but this lesson was reinforced in my mind and my synapses when I asked Solomon to take part in the Ethiopian Appreciation Day three years ago.  I heard that he does live paintings, so I thought this would be a nice little add-on to the event.  Little did I know that Solomon—at least for me—would be the headline act second only to Mahmoud Ahmed.  As busy as I was running around tying one loose end or another on September 25^th, I could not help but be captivated by the art Solomon was painting live right there at National Park.  What he ended up painting in less than 2 hours was a work so beautiful—so mesmerizing—that each time I look at an art work today, I hearken back to that beautiful September day and imagine what the artist was thinking when he was painting that show as I remember thinking that very same thing when Solomon was painting the map of Ethiopia three years ago. 

Thus, it is my honor and privilege to have Solomon Asfaw present at the Brown Condor Open mic poetry night at Bati Ethiopian Lounge and Restaurant on today as he paints a portrait of Mahmoud Ahmed live on the stage as we honor Mahmoud for the decades and decades of contributions he has made to Ethiopian music and culture.  We will be doing a live auction of the masterpiece that Solomon is going to create at the end of the night, so come out tonight and take part in this magical night as we thank Mahmoud for his amazing contributions in a Mahmoud themed evening and you too will be awed as you see Solomon create magic—as he becomes a father of his canvass—while molding and shaping the canvass to his liking based on his Tizita of Mahmoud.  After all, we are nothing more than canvasses, let Mahmoud and Solomon paint indelible images on our collective canvasses tonight::

“A good painting to me has always been like a friend. It keeps me company, comforts and inspires.” ~Hedy Lamarr

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FEATURE EVENT

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This week, the Special Guest of Honor is Mahmoud Ahmed at Bati Lounge and Restaurant, located at 3815 S George Mason Dr, Falls Church, VA 22041.  Starting at 9:00 PM EST on Wednesday March 21st, we will dedicate the whole 2 and a half hours to honoring the life and accomplishments of Mahmoud Ahmed.  You better believe the next time I  honor Mahmoud Ahmed it will be at the Kennedy Center or the White House. But for now, having learned a lesson from Mahmoud, I will humbly honor him the way that I can at this moment.

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Solomon Asfaw

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FEATURE BUSINESS

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AUTHOR

Teddy Fikre

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