Akaylah Forbes: the Creation of Man
Creative Writing and Journalism student Akaylah Forbes finds inspiration in a painting reproduced in Motif magazine
The Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture has a reproduction of Alan Davie’s oil canvas painting titled Creation of Man in the 7th Motif Book. It is an abstract painting from 1957 and when I gaze upon it I see the many things that create a man. At first glance, all you notice are a madman’s scribbles but upon closer inspection I found those scribbles are the roads that one can walk upon to become an individual. Each line represents the voices and thoughts that cloud the mind and make up a person. The eyes in the piece portray fear, depression, desperation, anger and hope. The many faces in the image tell a story.
Creation of Man (Triptych) by Alan Davie, 1957 oil on canvas reproduced in Motif Magazine, 1957
It reminds me of how I feel daily as I walk this Earth. I wonder to myself, who am I? Who will I become? Everything is jumbled up into a ball of confusion. My thoughts have plans and the voices in my head contain nothing but doubt. Staring at the painting, I wondered if the artist portrayed the struggles and paths of an individual and if those experiences create man.
As I walk on the road I believe leads to success, fate still determines where it will take me. What I do know is how my past has moulded and shaped me. There were days when so many thoughts ran around in my head that it felt like drowning. On other days I felt eyes were watching me everywhere, all judging me. The eyes always found a way to make my best self feel worthless. Then there were the many faces that I wore to please others. I have strayed off my straight and narrow path and branched off into so many others, and now I can’t find the one I left behind. As I walk down this unknown road, I pray it is the road to success and to the woman I am meant to be.
If you look at this painting clearly, you can find yourself and the roads you took to become the person you are today. So I urge you to go to the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture and look at the pieces, especially the art piece Creation of Man. What do you see when you look at the piece? How do you feel when you look at it? What do you hear and think when you examine it? Where does your mind go and what do you remember when you stare at such darkness and beauty?