Meeting My Abstraction — “Time Swims” & the Poetry of Time

Wafa El Hilali
May 28, 2020
2 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

Dear art lovers,

Today, I would love to invite you into a new Meeting My Abstraction moment through Episode 2: sharing a poem I wrote to accompany Time Swims, an artwork I created in 2015 (60 x 90 cm — acrylic on canvas).

This piece holds a special place in my artistic journey, especially as Time Swims has been nominated in 2020 for the Clyde & Co Art Awards.An honor that fills me with gratitude, and makes this sharing even more meaningful.

Time Swims: A Celebration of Time

Time Swims is a celebration of Time — not as a simple measurement, but as a presence.An invisible force moving through our lives, shaping transformation, memory, emotion, and evolution.

Time can feel fluid, yet intense.Light, yet profound. It carries us forward, reveals what is ready, and reminds us that everything is in movement.

Through this artwork, I wanted to honor the mysterious beauty of time — its depth, its complexity, its rhythm, and its silent wisdom.

When Poetry Meets Painting

For a long time, I have loved pairing some of my artworks with words, thoughts, and poetry.Not to explain the painting, but to extend it — as if writing became a second breath.

For me, poetry is a subtle bridge between the invisible and the visible.

It allows me to:

give a voice to what color is quietly expressing,
translate emotions beyond form,
offer another doorway into the artwork,
create a dialogue between art and inner experience.

Painting and poetry often come from the same place, yet speak different languages.Where the canvas holds a vibration, the poem carries a breath.

Creating a Dialogue Between Abstraction Art & Writing

In my universe, abstraction has never been emptiness. It is a space full of stories, sensations, memories, and symbols.

Writing for an artwork feels like listening to it. It gives the piece another way to speak.

A poem does not replace the viewer’s gaze. It gently accompanies it. It opens intimacy, presence, and resonance.

And sometimes, the viewer does not simply see a painting…they meet a world.

A Moment of Sharing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM1aVdAX4og

Today, I share this poem as a fragment of the inner journey behind the artwork.A suspended moment in time.An ode to the beautiful mystery that moves through all of us, even when we forget to notice it.

Thank you for taking the time to read, feel, and enter this universe with me.