Jalaluddin Rumi, Mathnawi I:1130 “Things are revealed by their opposites”
Black soot ink on ahar paper 50 x 44 cm
Nuria Garcia Masip
Most of a calligrapher’s time is passed in isolation. So I greeted the first weeks of confinement without too much worry. However, as the weeks passed by and the news of close friends and family trickled in, the weight of the tragedy started to crystallise. I couldn’t concentrate on making any new calligraphy compositions, do any research, or much of anything really, so I focused instead on writing a beautiful prayer I had already worked on some years back: “O Thou whose Name is a medicine and whose Remembrance is a cure” (Yā man ismuhu dawā’ wa dhikruhu shifā’). The meaning and the essence of these verses brought about great solace and it slowly helped me focus on the essentials and regain some sense of normality. I then started looking for new pieces to write and opened my small notebook of sketches - where I keep short sentences, texts and ideas for possible compositions - and I came upon two verses by Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi which I love very much which say: “Thus hidden things are revealed by (their) opposites. (And) since God has no opposite, He is hidden.
The full poem delves into the symbolism of light, the veils of existence and the mysteries of knowledge… however I was struck by its most literal meaning in view of the circumstances we are living today, how so many things we took for granted are now revealed in light of their being absent. I thus started on this new composition which was novel for me in many ways. It was the first time I wrote a piece by Rumi, and the first time I wrote it in Persian using the jaly thuluth script. So for me this piece has been, without intending so, a sort of breakthrough at such a significant time in our lives. May the Light and Love present in every cell in the universe heal and protect us…
The full poem starts likes this:
“You never see red, green, and reddish brown until you see light, prior to (seeing) these three (colors).
But because your mind was distracted by color, the colors became a veil to you from (perceiving) the light.
Since the colors are hidden at night, you have therefore found (that) the sight of colors is (necessarily) due to light.
(For) without external light, there isn’t (any) sight of color. (It is) the same way (with the sight of) inward mental colors.”
Born in 1978 in Ibiza, Spain, Nuria Garcia Masip grew up between Spain and the USA. In 1999, after completing her university studies in literature and philosophy, she traveled to Morocco where she developed and interest in Islamic art. She then returned to Washington D.C. where studied the rik’a, sülüs, and nesih scripts with master calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya, and later to Istanbul, where she continued to study the sülüs, and nesih scripts with masters Hasan Çelebi, and Davut Bektaş. In 2007, she received her diploma (ijazah) in these two scripts, signed by her three teachers.
She holds a Masters in Art History from Sorbonne University, has won prestigious prices in international calligraphy competitions and her work forms part of various private and museum collections. She has also organized numerous workshops and conferences on this art to promote the art of calligraphy internationally. Her work is firmly rooted in the classical school of calligraphy and she enjoys preserving the techniques and materials of the tradition. Nuria is currently living in Paris where she teaches, researches, and works on calligraphy. You can find more of her work at her website, Nuria Art.