“I had no choice but to walk away To the parked taxi that would take me far from my vacation from this paradise from this homeless kitten And I know I will never see him again only time and again it will reappear in my memories My helplessness, it’s helplessness It’s need of me leaving me with an ache Of having failed it as it looked for kindness in a cruel merciless competitive world Our destiny wrapped in pain, solidarity and knowing We were the same the weight of unwantedness of displacement of cruel love of morsels of happiness of good intentions but not favourable results Just one feline and one human the weight of going on living, fighting, longing trusting etched into our DNA “ - Meows that haunt my soul, July 2019 Before I was able to pen those words I was compelled to make two paintings – the first one that came to me depicts the confusion and despair of having to leave the kitten to fend for itself after I had cared for it and the other one, a few days later, imagining him entering a more beautiful world of flowers while I peek through a slight opening of this world to see him glide in happily. I believe through art we are able to bridge philosophical dilemmas in our lives that are not possible even with active thinking – a kind of active daydreaming, in essence, our own healing. My initial paintings were a way to try to confront, understand and put to rest those emotions. I am reminded of Jung’s words“…out of the impossibility of finding those words, I speak in images. With nothing else can I express the words from the depths.” (The Red Book: Liber Novus). My own feeling of “homelessness” and the questions of should we help when we know our help is not enough would be philosophical questions that were very present at the time and have resurfaced many times over in my life. And though the need to paint had started bubbling up some years back living between two different continents, finishing law school, taking the bar, working and founding a non-profit did not allow me the time or the resources to express it. I would experience visions of colors and words which I was finally able to channel into my artwork during the pandemic when the opportunity arose of being in one place (Michigan). And, Shefali Aftab was born. Shefali Aftab represents in itself a never-ending relationship. Shefali (in Bengali) is a five- to eight-lobed fragrant flower, with white petals with an orange-red center, that blooms at dusk and falls of its own accord at dawn forming a white and orange carpet around the plant. Aftab, in Persian, means the sun. As one rises the other falls, and this renews over and over again consistently. Shefali to me also signifies the duality of life – fleeting and yet mesmerizing and full of potential. Coincidentally, both flowers and the sun give freely without thinking of consequences which is the very essence that life should be lived with. “Pasiones del Alma ~ Journey of Colors” is Shefali’s debut exposition of 42 novel works – 33 paintings and 9 photographs. Her spotlight piece (featured below) is a triptych – “Inception, Turmoil, Equilibrium” which symbolizes the metamorphosis within. Each piece can stand on its own but together they represent an arch of internal development or rather deconstruction. Starting with Equilibrium and moving through Turmoil to Inception the triptych conceptualizes that Equilibrium was already in our core. The other layers were only veneers covering it and has to be discarded over time to reach back to Equilibrium.