I began this painting with the intention of cultivating and directing healing consciousness for a friend who was undergoing treatment for breast cancer with brain metastases (please visit her FundRazr page).

This painting was inspired by the work of the nineteenth-century Japanese woodblock artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi (d. 1861) entitled The First Emperor…

This was the first piece I finished after leaving academia, and the many months it took to do so served as a deep meditation, allowing me to recover parts of myself that I had set aside in my scholarly pursuits. I had actually begun this drawing over twenty years ago when I first took up the study of Sufism and was captivated by the figure of Rabiʿa al-Adawiyya (d. 801), who is universally revered in the tradition as being the first Sufi saint. Her single-pointed love of God and many miracles have served since the ninth century until today to inspire Sufis all over the world.