HYE

As the earth rumbles

As the sky falls

As the mountains crumble to your feet

The Believer Alone will smile with Faith

Read with us!

The Anthology is Out, now it’s your turn to tell us what you think!

Get a cup of something cozy, and read with us! This is what we do: we write, paint, draw, observe, and read, and this is how we grow, learn, and build community. Join us!

Neutrality is standing with the oppressor. This is not a viable option. It is clear as day who the oppressed are, and why we need to voice our concerns and do our utmost to stop their oppression. A political analyst would write papers, letters, file recommendations, give interviews and let his expertise guide the narrative that way. A satirist would bring to the surface the nefarious ultimate results of continuing the stated course of action and let the listeners become disgusted with the inevitable conclusions to be drawn. A scholar would make themselves available for classes, interviews, symposia and discussions to dissect the reality and bring forth solutions. A journalist would push for clear, unambiguous answers to critical questions that reveal the motivations, the means, and the end goal. A lawyer would gather information and bring it to bear before a panel of judges to beckon humanity to its stated morals. A musician would write a soundtrack to galvanize people and provide a suitable background to the unfathomable images that the oppressed provide. An influencer would use their platform to amplify the voices of the oppressed, have discussions with experts, or bring to the fore the necessary information for people to realize what is happening and why. An activist would gather people together to protest in every way they can to bring attention to the oppression, and make it difficult for the status quo to persist. A writer would write about what they see, hear, feel, and think. All of us together would hope that all our efforts combined would change the situation to one that is fair and just.

We are writers, and this is our effort, alongside our support of all other efforts, to bring the oppression of the Palestinians to an end. It is narrated that:

عَنْ أَبِي سَعِيدٍ الْخُدْرِيّ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ سَمِعْت رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه و سلم يَقُولُ: “مَنْ رَأَى مِنْكُمْ مُنْكَرًا فَلْيُغَيِّرْهُ بِيَدِهِ، فَإِنْ لَمْ يَسْتَطِعْ فَبِلِسَانِهِ، فَإِنْ لَمْ يَسْتَطِعْ فَبِقَلْبِهِ، وَذَلِكَ أَضْعَفُ الْإِيمَانِ” . [رَوَاهُ مُسْلِمٌ].

On the authority of Abu Sa`eed al-Khudree (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say, “Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.”
[Muslim]

Hadith 34, 40 Hadith an-Nawawi
https://sunnah.com/nawawi40:34

Writers and artists came together and responded to our call-out of January 1st in droves. We had anticipated a couple dozen contributors, but ended up receiving nearly a hundred submissions by people all over the world, from North America to Europe, from Africa to Asia. We got poems, short stories, essays, articles, a chronicle, a khutba, paintings, drawings, a comic strip, digital art, collages, and calligraphy. All heartfelt, some gut-wrenching, many hopeful, and all a testimony of what we are collectively feeling as we see appalling injustice unfold before our very eyes. We do not want to be bystanders, we refuse to accept the official responses and inaction, and this is one of the ways in which we make our intentions known.

The books are available at

http://www.inkedresistanceislamicpublishing.com/shop-mystore/Voices

and on etsy

http://www.etsy.com/ca/myshop/InkedResistance

We ask that you read with us, as the contributors get to see what every other contributor has offered forth, and perceive with us what we think is a representative sample of our Ummatic state of mind. Once you do, please take a few minutes of your time to ponder the words and the images in the book, and offer a few lines with your own thoughts on Goodreads.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/212191274-voices-in-solidarity-with-the-people-of-gaza

Send the publisher an email, a message, or a comment on their social media, or comment below, share with your friends and family, and let’s all unite in solidarity with the People of Gaza.

The Anthology is ready for purchase!

Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen, the anthology has been printed, and is now available for purchase at

http://www.inkedresistanceislamicpublishing.com

and at

https://www.inkedresistanceislamicpublishing.com/shop-mystore

and at

etsy.com/ca/myshop/InkedResistance

Half of all profits go to Qatar Charity to aid the People of Gaza.

Review it on Goodreads!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/212191274-voices-in-solidarity-with-the-people-of-gaza

This work has been many months in the making, and I couldn’t be happier that we managed to complete it in such a short time! Alhamdulillah and thanks to Inked Resistance for their incredible work!

Distract Me

Give me a sale, give me a song

anything at all to get the buzz I long

Get my adrenaline pumping

but keep my beauty intact

I want to fight this but not lose my bling

use words, use tact

just don’t ruffle my feathers

a bit too much

we’re here writing letters

fearing allergic reactions to actual touch

Get my mind off

Squash my soul

Let my gut twist in knots, I know it’s rough

But I wanna look good, not like you ghoul

Lie to me as you lie to yourself

Nobody cares, as long as the writing’s on the shelf

Cry another tear

it’ll loosen you up

It’s not like you got much to fear

All the real trouble makers are locked up

Our Solidarity Anthology deadline for submissions is quickly coming to a close!

Let YOUR Fingers Speak!

Let YOUR Fingers Speak!

Deadline is February 29, 2024. If you would like to publish your poem, essay, story, or art in our anthology in solidarity with Palestine, make sure to email solidarityanthology@gmail.com to get the details. Time is running out! Half of all proceeds go to charities supporting humanitarian efforts in Gaza.

Why am I surprised? It’s not like it hasn’t happened before. The only difference now is that it’s happening live, before our very eyes. But it had happened before too, not before my eyes; I only found out afterwards, like most people, but there were witnesses: lots of them. It never happened all of a sudden either, though someone will always want to put an exact date on the day the world suddenly went mad.

Nobody is immune, everyone, in the right circumstances, is fully capable of doing things like this. Even if you studied such atrocities before, even if you or someone you love had been at the receiving end of such behavior, it does not immunize you from becoming an oppressor yourself. Case in point: someone who has spent, in the interest of science and for the benefit of humanity, literal decades studying regimes that conducted mass murder, purportedly hoping to prevent such psychological processes to go unchecked in the future, can turn around at the opportune moment and blatantly, shamelessly, and publicly state: “Give them hell” when extermination is about to unfold.

The Pharaos and the Europeans did it to the Jews. The Europeans did it to Native Americans, Asians, and Africans. Some Europeans do it to each other, as do some Asians and some Africans also. We keep saying education is the solution. But we’ve all been educated, and yet here we are, witnessing yet another genocide, and simply standing by as it unfolds. We said “Never Again!” and we did it again, not once, not twice, but many times over. In WWII, in Algeria, in Vietnam, in Rwanda, in Yugoslavia, in Burma/Myanmar, and in currently in Palestine, to name but a few.

Many thousands of people are still educating themselves, many are protesting against it, but so many more are simply satisfied to let it be, some even encouraging it. Some, though I suspect they’re becoming fewer and fewer every day, are still on the fence! They might be wondering if they will be considered anti-Semites for saying anything against the starry flag. As many practicing, faithful, and conscientious Jews have said and continue to say: Israel does NOT represent Judaism. Most Rabbis are anti-zionists, and have always been so. Some even argue that suggesting that Jewish people stand with Israel, especially in light of their most recent actions, IS anti-Semitic. Not to mention the fact that Arabs (both Muslim and Christian) are Semites, along with Armenians, which is a curious detail most people ignore. Equating anti-Semitism with anti-zionism has been the most effective propaganda tool, which, to many survivors’ disgust, has also weaponized the memory of the Holocaust to justify human rights abuses, breaking of international laws on repeat, and undertaking a mass exodus of an entire Indigenous population. It worked, for over 75 years, because here we are, on the last, shaky leg of their operations, witnessing a literal genocide (by UN standards) in REAL TIME, and being completely unable to get our governments to even acknowledge it, let alone stop it! On the contrary, our own governments, many of whom currently reside on stolen land which they successfully colonized by exterminating 80-90% of its Indigenous inhabitants, leaving the remainder to completely rely on them for their survival, are aiding the assault with dollars, weapons, weapons contracts, and in some cases even personnel, as well as with their silence and censorship.

Like I said, this has happened before, but make no mistake, by allowing it to continue to happen, we are all but GUARANTEEING that it will CONTINUE to happen, and don’t think you will be spared because of your skin color or creed. The mighty dollar and the bullet do not discriminate: the first will corrupt anyone who worships it and make injustice and massacre an acceptable means to satisfy one’s greed, and the second will just make the trajectory from greed to worldly wealth that much faster.

Don’t be fooled: Rwandans were not Muslims, Congolese are not, for the most part, Muslim, Chechens and Bosnians were as white as snow. Israel is no more interested in the Jewish faith than Isis was about Islam. Faith is but a tool to get to the land, and Palestinians are in the way of that, just like Bosnians and Chechens were: not all Palestinians, Bosnians, or Chechens are Muslim, but it just makes it so much easier to blob them altogether, because it makes the fiction of a religious war more credible, especially if you accept the lie that Zionism equals Judaism and Isis equals Islam.

Europeans feel guilty about the Holocaust, and allow themselves to be manipulated into condoning nearly a century of ethnic cleansing. Opportunistic people allow themselves to be wooed by the convenient manipulation and usurpation of sacred scriptures, history, and politics for their convenience. It takes a very strong, principled person to say no to a free house and the promise of safety and protection by the military, especially when most of the Western world acquiesces, no matter how flagrantly they usurp these trusts.

But we’re far beyond making excuses now. There is no denying that the self-defense excuse has erred beyond bounds. There is no denying that the atrocities that continue to occur by the minute are not only not yielding the stated aims of ridding the world of Hamas, but might actually be creating a whole new level resentment and hatred. If the intent was to rescue the hostages, why bomb the entire place to smitherines? Don’t Jewish hostages bleed too? Or maybe they, like so many before, are simply going to be counted among the now nearly impossible to count casualties of war, or as Madelaine Albright and Hillary Clinton euphemistically called them: collateral damage (Bibi confidently repeating this just days ago) .

Ask yourself this: are you trying to do mental acrobatics to justify the death of babies, children, women, the elderly, and innocent men? Does anything in your gut tell you that there’s something wrong with what’s happening? Then you owe it to yourself to figure out WHY, and until you do, at the very least, consider the fact that while you sort it all out in your mind, a child is dying every 10 minutes, so please hurry up. If you need time, take time, but buy some time for those being killed too, because I KNOW you will not be able to live with yourself after the fact. Demand your politicians to press for a ceasefire, and hold your journalists to the standard they promised to uphold when they signed their contracts: to be a voice that holds the powers that be to account to their electorate. Just like your vote counts, your words can make a difference. You don’t have to take any sides, just ask for the killing to stop, just long enough for you to make up your mind, and then stand up for justice and truth, wherever it lays. One thing I implore you NOT to do, is to sit by and let it all happen, hoping it won’t come knocking on your own doorstep. As they say: injustice anywhere breeds injustice everywhere.

The utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill, said it best in 1867 during his inaugural address at the University of St. Andrews, so let me conclude by citing his words: “Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”

Let my fingers speak

Today I sit here, facing this blank screen, and force my fingers to move, because that’s what they’re good at. I feel terrible, but people in Gaza (and people in MANY other places to be sure, are feeling exponentially worse, and still, they put one foot in front of the other, and keep breathing, hanging on to their faith in God and in humanity). These are unwavering, the first because it’s the only reason any one of us exists in the first instance, and the second because it was created by the First.

It’s been 3 weeks and 3 days that Gaza has been under constant bombardment, complete and total siege, with a mere trickle of humanitarian aid being severely filtered through one single entrance point only in the last few days, with devious restrictions. These are literally just another way to pour salt on a gaping wound.

The news is sickening, on the one end the thousands of images of dead corpses of children, covered in grey dust and crusted blood, and on the other the callous, stubbornly single-minded rhetoric that pretends that it’s all justifiable in the end.

Not a single day has gone by that I haven’t cried, prayed, or posted my outrage, along with in-depth articles, documentaries, analyses, and interviews in my IG stories, FB, and WhatsApp. I’ve been trying to sit to write about it, but I simply could not wrap my mind around how I should approach the subject, from what angle, and who my intended audience would be. I let all these considerations crowd out my drive to actually sit and begin writing.

I thought about making parallels between my Native ancestors’ ordeals with the Canadian and American governments to maintain a semblance of dignity and self-reliance, to be heard and seen as human beings, and our hope to be treated as equals. But I feared that I might actually sound pessimistic, as our plight was riddled down to a couple of days’ holidays to remember that we still exist, the token recognition that we stand on unceeded Native land, and a few cheques a year to help us keep up with consumer-driven holidays. For most intents and purposes we are all but defunct, though many of my own friends, cousins and their kids bring me renewed hope that we might be a Phoenix about to rise again from the ashes.

How can I ask people who have suffered for CENTURIES to be recognized as worthy of existence to empathize with people who have struggled for three mere generations? I cannot. I just felt that MY PEOPLE would understand, that they would empathize, and through this pinhole into the plight of the Palestinians, they might watch a documentary, or even half a documentary, and get more interested. Maybe this would be a catalyst for OUR OWN renewed hope in our revival. I even thought that some might feel an obligation to prevent what happened to us from happening to others, if at all possible, even if just by hashtagging or changing their profile picture, by sharing my posts, or commenting on them and beginning a conversation with me, even if just two lines long. None of these visible signs have occurred, but I don’t see inside people’s hearts, and perhaps a seedling has entered and is taking root.

I feared that my unwavering support for the freedom of Palestine might be misconstrued as anti-semitism by my Jewish friends. So I tend to go heavy on the Jewish academics’ voices, and share their explanations, their research, and their committed stances against the ideology of zionism, and I often quote ultra Orthodox Jewish people’s stance on the concept of zionism. I dreaded the very predictable possibility that people of all stripes might take this opportunity to stoke fear in both Muslims and Jews, and attempt to carry out acts of violence which they would otherwise be unable to perpetrate. Unfortunately, both have occurred, Jews and Muslims alike have to think twice about going outside, especially if clearly religiously recognizable, and especially in countries where the media refuses to do the job they are supposed to do, and rather seem contented with repeating propaganda. I imagine it’s only a matter of time before even Sikhs get sucked in, as they often do, because of the Orientalist association of turbans to Islam.

I wondered about my European friends who felt very close to the Ukrainian plight, and many of whom rushed to support their refugees within hours, donating, changing their profile pictures, and readily voting to pass special laws that allowed them to bypass immigration processes to come and live in the safety of their homes. Speeches at the UN when that conflict broke out are a stark contrast to the drama we see today, and yes, I mean that literally. 

All this said, we are witnessing the largest demonstrations worldwide, we are seeing politicians of countries with vivid memories of colonialism take very strong, unequivocal stands against Israel’s military action. It seems to me that people are recognizing the reality that their eyes, their intellect, and their sense of righteousness aren’t misplaced: their political leaders’ are (Canada, the US, the UK, and France in particular). If democracies are supposed to listen to their populace and go with the majority, it would seem consequential. I pray that it is.

Ultimately, I believe God when He tells us that He created us with a moral compass, that He does not burden anyone beyond their abilities (and I must say that Palestinians are proving to have unimaginable abilities), that He answers our prayers, that He is Just, and that He does not forget. I don’t know what is going to happen. I have no idea how this is going to end, and this is, in large part, what caused me the most pain in the last three weeks: I know the martyrs are not suffering, that they are granted Heaven, and they can bring 70 of their loved ones with them, to ease their survivor’s guilt, I know that the world has a conscience, and the vast majority of people will not allow to let this get out of hand (the size of the hand will vary depending on a number of contingencies). Thinking about the almost certain suffering that has yet to come before it gets even minimally better, and, worst of all, most unacceptable of all, the remote possibility that things might just go back to how they were on October 6th, is what chokes me.

I think, at this point, given the millions of eye witnesses to the unfolding of this tragic chapter, it will become impossible to go back to pretending that this is just an Arab thing, or a civilizational clash. Although not everyone is reading the mounting evidence against the apartheid state, I believe enough people have, and more people will. I don’t know what my part in this is, but I do know that I do not want to go to my grave wishing I had said something, that my fingers had done some more typing, that my voice had been a bit louder or clearer. I don’t know for sure if any of this will fall on deaf ears, or if I’m singing to the choir, honestly, I’m going in blind, but I’m unwilling to stay put, knowing that I have knowledge in me that might make a difference, that God has gifted me with circumstances and awareness, and I will not squander them.

Art for the Soul

Marvi and I never actually met in person. I was drawn to her paintings, which she posted on a community groupchat we share. Her unique style had stuck with me from previous years, I recognized it: I had seen pictures of her paintings on that same chat after a bazar, or something of the sort. As it had been after the fact, I assumed everything had been sold, so I didn’t bother to reach out to her. They had called me out, and pulled at my heart-strings, but I couldn’t put my finger on why they were having such an effect on me.

This time I didn’t want to risk loosing her contact, so I reached out to her as soon as I saw her pictures. From this first contact I discovered that she doesn’t just paint, she’s also an artistic card writer, and runs a children’s YouTube channel with her kids. I requested to see more of her paintings, and I perused her two YouTube channels. The more I saw of her work, the more intrigued I got. So I asked her if she’d agree to be interviewed for my blog. She graciously agreed, and the following is our exchange on the subject of her creativity.

1. Salam Marvi, Let’s get the introductions out of the way first. What is your background? What would you like our readers to know about you?

I come from Pakistan, from the province of Sindh to be precise; hence my name: Marvi is a folk-legend. I am a chartered accountant by profession, When I was younger, I really wanted to pursue interior design but fate had planned differently for me, so I studied accounting and kept following my interests in arts and designing on the side, as a passion. I am a mother of two beautiful kids, masha-Allah, my son is four and my daughter is two years old.

2. Masha Allah. Interesting! You are not the first who tells me that they pursued a more practical academic route, despite knowing early on that you liked the arts. It’s a smart move, as you always have something to fall back on if the art route doesn’t pan out, as it often doesn’t. And although I’d like to say that following your passions would be ideal, I have had friends who were very glad that they did have a plan B, as it allowed them to be able to pay the bills. But I’m curious about your name now! I never heard of the Marvi legend, could you share it?

So, Marvi in the story is depicted as a very beautiful girl with whom the King, Omar, falls in love. Since Marvi was interested in neither kingdom nor king, she refused to marry him. The king abducts her, but Marvi keeps on refusing, longing for her home and homeland. This part is common, but the next part I am not sure about, since people to omit it one way or the other. In the end, king Omar comes to learn that he can’t marry her because they were wet-nursed by the same lady, and so technically, they are like siblings, (lol). In short, Marvi is a symbol of love for homeland.

3. What attracts you to art?

My love for art started as young as I could remember, I don’t think I had ever missed an opportunity to make a birthday, get well soon, love you, or miss you card, (lol). There was this one time when I made a card for my friend’s birthday and my other friend came close to me and mentioned, hers was coming soon and she wanted exactly the same card (lol). I think it was a compliment. What attracts me to art is the joy it brings to my and other people’s lives. I remember being more excited about the reaction of the other person when I was making something for them, be it a card or some art project. Personalizing a particular piece of art shows that the other person matters to you and that’s all that there is to this life, don’t you agree? One way or the other, this life is all about expressing love, for God, for people around you, and even for the animals, through words AND actions. 

For me, art is very therapeutic. After a long week/month especially after I had kids, there’s nothing that winds me down better than a nice art project.

4. I can relate to that, for sure. Compliments you get for things you’ve put effort into really stick. I think I’m starting to understand what draws me into your art: it’s the feeling and care you express through it. It really shines through! Masha Allah!

Thank you so much, these words mean a lot to me. It lets me know that I have been successful in pouring at least some of my heart onto the canvas, if not all.

3.  You are very artistic, and express yourself in many different ways, between your calligraphy YouTube channel, your kids’ YouTube channel, your paintings, it’s clear to me at least, that you have a lot to say, and that you have a very particular way of saying it, what are you trying to say with your art? What is important to you?

I DO have a lot to say (lol), I deeply analyze life experiences, mine and others’. I observe and read a lot, combining these two, you have a pool of deductions and reductions. I think about what’s the best way of expressing that one particular point that I have in my mind, what medium would be best suitable, and who’s the recipient of my message. Before, I started my YouTube kids’ channel, what I do on those videos is what I used to do 24/7 live with the audience that I gave birth to, (lol), I really did! I feel my kids would feel less of a threat to their power and independence if Skye from paw patrol would tell them to do something than their mommy, so I get to pick my battles. If it was something petty, Skye would make them do it without arguments, Skye could feed them, change their diapers without them running around, unless there was something serious and Mommy had to come out of me and draw the line.

I think at the end of the day, I am saying what I should say instead of what other people want to hear. We and our kids have never been lonelier despite the world around us, and that’s the theme you would notice in most of my paintings. I feel like there’s a dire need for people to reconnect to reality and each other, as people are slowly drifting away into this delusionary and virtual world, based on self-centeredness. 

I think personal interaction and learning selflessness is something really important to me, and therefore, I chose to use this double edged-sword, which is social media, to my advantage. The very medium that’s taking us apart from each other and our values, can be used to remind us about what’s actually important, especially for the kids, as they are our future. I strongly believe that shaping our kids’ future starts early on: if we teach them the value of truth, honesty, kindness and respect today, then, tomorrow we have one less counter-productive adult to deal with,, be it on a personal level or societal. 

5. Ah yes, there are many studies showing exactly what you are talking about: our increasing disconnectedness in spite of our frequent and obsessive virtual interactions. So how do you make content that goes beyond the virtual? What impetus do you wish to inspire in your viewers?

So, the virtual platform is just a start, it’s a means to an end, basically. Recent studies do tell us both things: that this is what’s driving us apart and that it is also the most effective way of communicating to the masses. Eventually, my goal is to inspire people to circle back around, where ‘Face’ is the ‘Book’ , and ‘Friends’ are not just a number. In fact, I have written a whole poem about that! Stay tuned to marnimadsal for that..

6.  Your paintings are very peaceful, almost meditative, is your painting activity a form of meditation?

The main goal of meditation is to acquire peace, that’s what I am trying to achieve through my paintings, or any other art project. I want to clear my mind, let go of any negative energy that’s been draining me out. If everything goes well during the process, I do feel very rejuvenated after my project. 

7. What happens to the paintings that draw out your negativity? Are you hiding them? Or do you keep working on them until they turn into something peaceful, or until you rediscover peace within yourself?

The positive energy that comes through the mere process simply transcends the negative energy. Negativity doesn’t come pouring out of me in my paintings. I basically acquire zen by looking at the paint, brushes, a blank slate, and having a moment to myself. It’s a feeling similar to that of starting over, with a clear heart and mind, giving everything another chance, with sincerity.

8.   Your videos, both on the calligraphy channel, and on the kids’ channel, are also soothing to watch and to listen to, is this simply an expression of your personality, or are you intentionally keeping very soft lighting, pen-strokes, and voicing?

I think generally I am the kind of person who keeps calm. I don’t really enjoy over-stimulating things; I feel like we tend to lose focus from the main point if there’s too much going around. As for the kids’ channel, I do add some parts that would make them happy or excite them so that they at least want to watch the video. I really want the parents to be able to find something balanced and not overly-stimulating for the kids, because I feel as a parent, I should put in front of my kids what they should be watching, not what they want to watch, at least not all the time. 

https://www.youtube.com/@marnimadsal

9. How do you know you hit the balance between something they like and would want to watch, and something that simply attracts them because of the energy or stimulation they derive from it?

I have two volunteers for testing at home, (lol)! See, I believe that even if you give your kid some screentime, which is almost inevitable at some point, you can still spend time with them. If I want to sit down or get a chore done, I have never left my kids alone in a room with a screen: either they take part in the chore, or I watch alongside them as I do my chores. In my 4 years of mommy-life, I put on what they like, and I’m close enough to know all the names of the episodes and shows and know their favorites. That way, there’s obviously a database in my head as to which channels think about their content of how it would affect a kid’s thinking and what channels just mindlessly upload videos without thinking about the consequences. That way, I can ROUGHLY evaluate, though obviously every kid is different, if it has achieved a balance or not. I also run videos by my son first. Most of the time the very idea for each new video actually comes out of our play-time together. It’s either something that I made up for them and they enjoyed it, or something I’ve been doing with them that they like. For example, the dino song, I made for my son, and he loves it. Whereas the song that I sang in Sofia’s bedtime episode, I didn’t write, but it’s something that I have always sung to my kids.

6.  Where do you see your channels and your painting going in five years? Is it a smooth and clear trajectory, or are you just enjoying the journey?

For the channels, even though I love what I am doing, I want to monetize them as well, I do see potential in both of those areas (the writing and the kids’ one), and I do see gaps as well, as I mentioned. I want to see people taking out time for other people to express their feelings, I want to express what I have to say through calligraphy. As for the kids’ channel, I want to be able to contribute by bringing children closer to the values which we should aspire to adhered to. 

The painting journey, however, is something that I am enjoying in and of itself. I actually started painting just a year ago, when my mom bought me a set of acrylic paints as a present. Before that, I’d do small scale projects with the make-up sets I was given: nail-colors and lip-glosses… really! I don’t wear make-up so I’d use those for painting and making cards. So, 5 years from now, I just see myself improving my painting skills.

https://www.youtube.com/@incywincyadv

7.  Now, I couldn’t finish this without asking about your kids. How do they interact with your artistry? Do they also paint? Is this something you purposefully include in their day to day lives?

Well, I paint when they are asleep at night, or are out with their father. My husband supports me by providing this opportunity so that I can get a break and get back to my sanity (lol). I ask my son what he thinks about it after I am done, sometimes he’ll tell me if he likes it or not, but most of the time the answer is, ‘I want to paint too!’. However, I do bring out paint every once in a while, for them either in the garage, or in the backyard in the summer, because I don’t want to give them paint and then constantly be stressing them out about using it carefully around the walls: because where’s the fun in that?! So, when I do, they don’t want to come back to the house, that’s how much they enjoy it! My daughter, when she was 18 months old, once pointed towards the paint brushes and then took me where the paints were in the garage trying to tell me she wanted to paint. I purposefully give them pencil-colors and crayons and let them be, to express their creativity, it’s very important for them, since they have so much to say, and so many stories to tell. They and I absolutely love it!

8.  Do you have any advice for moms who would like to include more artistic expression in their kids’ lives?

My advice for those moms would be to take out some one-on-one time without the screen presence (tabs or phones) in the room, with a kids-friendly environment and products, and then just let them be. If you lend an ear when the kids are done as to what they were trying to show, you will be surprised what stories, emotions and expressions surface with those pictures. You know what they say: a picture is worth a thousand words! I mean, if it wasn’t for my mom and dad taking out time to listen to me, my ideas and stories, despite how silly they may have sounded, I wouldn’t be who I am today.

9. Is there anything else you feel you’d like to discuss, mention, or bring to our readers’ attention?

Connect to nature, wise ones (which are our elders), and your loved ones. There’s so much that we are losing in this fast-paced world already, let not the relations be among those things. Take out time for the things that actually matter.

This has been really lovely, thank you very much for your time. Where can people find you for customizable cards, or to purchase a painting?”

Thank YOU for giving me this wonderful opportunity to present my views, I feel really honored. I can write a message or design a personalized card, if the details are provided through email or DM, the whole process is usually mentioned in the description box of the video clip or also on my channel’s page on YouTube.

My paintings however, can be found either on Instagram or Facebook page. I do not ship as of right now, but they are available to be picked up locally anytime.  

Here are the links to my pages on different platforms:

Kids YouTube channel: Incy Wincy Adventures

Facebook: Incy Wincy Adventures

Art, Creative writing and personalized messages YouTube channel: Marnimadsal

Instagram: @marnimadsal

Facebook: Marnimadsal