Jacqueline Claire's Joyful Dance

2020, whew what a year. It's been a while since I posted and I promised Jacqueline I would offer some insights about her work Joyful Dance. Purchased for Rachel for our anniversary as a testament to her joyful spirit despite unyielding adversity this year in the Illari household. My cancer diagnosis, work transition and resignation and a global pandemic to boot. 

I suppose dance is one of the purest expressions of human creativity and playfulness. It is an unabashed outpouring of movement inspired by rhythm as well as emotional and spiritual sentiments. When i look at Jacqueline's work I feel that yearning of the soul and spirit to break free and dance. All of us have encountered this yearning, especially in 2020. 

Rachel is what the Bahai Faith coins my helpmate, as I am to her. It has been a joyful, bumpy, sometimes infuriating, comical, and rewarding partnership ever since she proposed to me many many years ago. 

From the Writings of the Bahai Faith:

O ye two believers in God! The Lord, peerless is He, hath made woman and man to abide with each other in the closest companionship, and to be even as a single soul. They are two helpmates, two intimate friends, who should be concerned about the welfare of each other.

If they live thus, they will pass through this world with perfect contentment, bliss, and peace of heart, and become the object of divine grace and favor in the Kingdom of heaven. But if they do other than this, they will live out their lives in great bitterness, longing at every moment for death, and will be shamefaced in the heavenly realm.

Strive, then, to abide, heart and soul, with each other as two doves in the nest, for this is to be blessed in both worlds.

A big thanks to Jacqueline for sharing with me some of her behind the scenes images related to her developing Joyful Dance in her studio. Please do support her at https://www.jacquelineclaireart.com/