By Maryam Gerami
This painting is a reminder to consider the connection between human beings and nature and the fact that we belong to the land and the land provides our roots. Injustice towards humans goes hand-in-hand with injustices done to each other and the earth’s ecosystem.
I believe the problems within our communities are rooted in the hearts of people. To transform our community, we need to bring love into the heart and learn how to love our neighbours and everyone in the world as ourselves. Since everything in our world is interconnected, the emphasis should be on understanding and improving relationships and interactions to effectively address problems of humanity. In my opinion, the problems within interpersonal relations are directly related to the hardening of the hearts of individuals. Anything incompatible with the calling of our spirit manifests itself in our minds and actions. This painting was created as a reminder to deeply contemplate the feelings in our hearts in order to recognize the moments we think or behave selfishly, or when our thoughts are based on racism or the ways we behave towards others in the ways we do not want to be treated. These attributes have destructive and poisonous effects on people around us and our relationship with them with consequential repercussions on ourselves. Thus, in order to address any problem in our community, we need creative reminders to bring love and compassion to our heart first, in order to be a role model for others. In contrast to anger which burns and destroys the individual and his surroundings, every act of love and compassion coming from the heart could breathe life into the cold relationships dominating our society. To conclude, our relationships and interactions with each other and with the world works as a mirror to show us our hearts and creates opportunities for us to change from inside out and transform our community.
