Everybody's Born an Artist.

The World of United Nations Peoples

"How did you get your hair to do that?" A lady at the guest sign-in table stared at the top of my bead. Zoda, a dark-haired native of Tajikistan, also looked.

"It's a twisted braid", I offered. But I understood their curiosity. The texture and design of Afro-hair allows it to literally stand on end and defy gravity.

Many of the subjects in painter Faridun Negmat-Zoda's artwork do just that. Women, horses and even corncobs levitate. Such pieces in "Art is Alive," the exhibition of Tajik art in the UN south lobby in November 2000, glorify the spiritual aspects of our world.

The Dream fascinated me. It reveals a mysterious event that occurs in the purple-walled bedroom of a young woman. Flowers sit in a bedside vase. With drawn-back covers and fluffed pillows, the bed looks inviting. Yet, the woman in a white nightgown, surrounded by a gold aura, floats in a sleeping position several feet above her bed. Where does the soul go when we sleep?

In Spring Eternal, a smiling mother with cascading brown hair walks on air. Birds flutter about her floral-print dress as she carries her small child. Two pelicans dance on the grass below. Bright-coloured houses, rolling hills of green, blue lakes and flowers in bloom add to the painting's fertile imagery. Even by day our nature soars.

A lazy afternoon farm scene, Other Side of the Fence, depicts two horses--one brown, one white--standing face to face. They hover above the corner of a white-fenced pasture. Their necks entwine. The farmer domesticated their bodies, but not their essence.

"These are spiritual to me." I pointed to the floating portrayals. "Yes, I agree." Zoda smiled. "It's love."

Zoda's art captures the beauty of horizons, desert plains, birds and flowers, as well as the moods of the sky. Purple nights and cloudless blue days appear in his work. In Heat, yellow pigment tints the sky, roads and dwellings, such that nothing escapes the sun's wrath.

"Birds of a feather ..." dye their hair in Tribal County. Exotic birds in fuchsia, kelly green and gold roost on the heads of three young people. One girl wears her fuchsia hair cut short, while the other with kelly green hair keeps hers long and straight. The boy sports a gold mohawk. Faded teepee-like structures form a village behind them.

"These are their favourite birds", Zoda explained. "Each one has a name. They want to look like them. They're free."

Zoda's favourite, Bird in Hand (see photo), features a red room with a canary standing on a canopy bed enclosed with gold bars. He confided that the proverbial Don Quixote quote, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush", inspired the oil painting. The bird appears nonchalant about his cage. Perhaps the spirit of author Cervantes Saavedra, who conceived of that masterpiece while in prison, sings through this golden bird.

Zoda's interpretations expose the temperament of his subjects. Nudes appear in his portraits of men notorious for their sexual associations. In paintings of lover Don Juan, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and Biblical polygamist Jacob, imbedded naked figures delineate the nose, brows, cheeks or chin. I admit, at first glance, I missed them. Must have been a Freudian slip.

I ventured into Zoda's past. "When did you know you'd be an artist?"

"I was born an artist. I think everybody's born an artist", he clarified. "Don't you see how children love art--to paint, to draw." Silently, I wondered what happens to our artistry as we "grow up".

Zoda's love of nature, people, his native country and culture emanate from his work. Women in Black, an acrylic on canvas, bathes the eye with pastels of pink, peach, gold and yellow. A city panorama displays people in the bustle of life. Squeezed into the bottom corner of the picture, two women walk together; their black garments hiding everything except their eyes and noses.

"How did you choose which paintings to bring?"

"I like all types--subjects about my country, everyday people--to show the events and things around me."

Zoda cited 14th/16th-century Dutch painters, Italian renaissance artists, Western European contemporaries, as well as Paul Delvaux and Salvador Dali as his influences. His artwork has been presented throughout Europe, Syria, Lebanon, Washington D.C., and in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he resides.

I thought about life in Nebraska as I stood before Corn Maiden. Comcobs in a sky of blue dangle over green countryside. The golden hair of a girl in a brown cowboy hat matches the hue of the ears of corn. Another "hair" piece, Lady of Snakes, features an ebony-skinned girl over-looking a desert plain at sunset. However, instead of a plaited hair, colourful snakes form her shoulder-length cornrows.

The 24-painting exhibit provides a smorgasbord of food for the soul. Zoda's passion for themes that centre on the home, romance, children and dreams nourishes our deepest yearnings. I stared at the Dream one last time. I loved the peacefulness it conveys.

Back in my office, I noticed a dull ache in my stomach. Was I hungry for lunch or the artistry lost from my childhood?

I guess I'm a grown-up. I chose lunch!