A common space for harmonic peacemakers
The Memory of Wound – A Portrait of the Human Soul at the Edge of Existence From the painting of Shefqet Avdush Emini, created at an international symposium in Egypt
In the world of contemporary art, where aesthetics often become a shelter for form and a neglect of content, the work of Shefqet Avdush Emini stands as a direct punch to the collective consciousness. In this painting, created during an international symposium in Egypt, Emini does not merely raise an image – he builds a memory. He processes a scream that originates from the depths of the human soul and transforms it into a powerful visual act, a portrait of pain that transcends cultural and historical boundaries.
From the first contact with this painting, the sensation that emerges is not simply aesthetic. It is a painful collision with the interior of a human being who lives the consequences of an unspoken tragedy. The colors are no longer tools for beauty, but violent instruments of a visual protest. The deep blue, like a hopeless sky above the subject's forehead, chills the feelings and reveals the mental trauma of a person submerged in experiences that cannot be articulated with words. The red, which erupts like molten blood across the surface, is like an open wound that is never satisfied by time, that is not healed by forgetting. The yellow, often associated with life and light, in this case emerges as a broken illusion, a denied promise of life in a reality that has forgotten what it means to live with dignity.
The human figure rising in this turbulent composition is a universal representation of the victim. It has no name, no ethnic or national identity – it is a human being, a simple being who carries on their face the entire tragedy of humanity. Emini, with deep philosophical sensitivity, chooses not to give clear identities – because pain is universal. It belongs to everyone who has lost, who has been oppressed, who has witnessed with their own eyes the barbarities that humanity is capable of producing.
But this work is not just a documentation of pain. It is an act of accusation. A direct call against indifference. A bitter question that hangs in the air: Do those who cause these horrors, and those who execute them, belong to the human race? It is a question that comes from experience, from reflection, from the long and ongoing confrontation with the faces of the victims of modern history – with genocides, wars, internments, persecutions, and the ongoing destructions that constitute a large part of our daily reality.
Emini does not see art as a refuge. He does not escape reality to seek aesthetics in the abstract. On the contrary, through abstraction, he delves even deeper into the reality of the human soul. He overturns classical forms to show the untold truth of the spirit – a truth that cannot be shaped by simple realism but requires tension, eruption, wild contrasts, and shattered structures. In this way, he gives a voice to those who are unheard – the silenced, the oppressed, the forgotten by memory.
The work is also a call for peace. Not a simple, superficial peace, but an inner peace, a deep, enduring peace, grounded in justice and humanity. The artist’s words – “I pray for peace and wish that peace will remain forever with humanity” – are a message that transcends art. They are a testament, an oath of the artistic spirit that refuses to surrender in the face of destruction. Emini does not paint to forget, but to remember. He paints to stop ruin. He paints to protect humanity from itself.
In this way, this painting is not just a work of art – it is a social act, a moral call, a responsibility taken on by an artist who feels pain as part of his creative identity. And this is what makes Shefqet Avdush Emini's art irreplaceable: the power to unite the beautiful and the painful, to turn art into consciousness, to transform painting into a spiritual document of our time.
This grim, turbulent, scorched, and bloodied portrait is a window that allows us to see not only the face of the victim but also our reflection within it. It reminds us that we are not invulnerable. That every crime we allow to happen without raising our voice is a wound inflicted on all of humanity. That without justice, there is no peace, and without memory, there is no future.
Shefqet Avdush Emini has created here a modern icon of pain, a painted call that urgently demands not to be forgotten, neglected, or silenced. And in a time when silence has become an accomplice to evil, his art becomes more essential than ever – a voice rising from the marrow of the soul to demand justice, humanity, and a brighter world for all of us.
THE PAIN OF THE HUMAN SOUL IN THE COLORS OF THE SKY AND BLOOD: THE MANIFESTO OF PEACE IN THE ART OF SHEFQET AVDUSH EMINI
In the history of contemporary art, there are works that do not speak only of a specific time but of all times. There are paintings that are not only visual but are experienced with all the senses of the soul. And there are artists who are not satisfied with the beauty of form but aim to tear apart the silence of human consciousness. One of them is Shefqet Avdush Emini, one of the most prominent figures of abstract expressionism in the international arena, who, through this work created at a symposium in Egypt, raises a powerful and necessary scream against the barbarity of war and the loss of humanity.
A PORTRAIT OF PAIN WITHOUT A NAME The portrait that appears before our eyes is more than just a face. It is an emotional explosion, a fragmented structure of pain, a powerful collision between the wounded interior and the outside world that scorns it. It has no name because it could be anyone. It has no nationality because pain knows no boundaries. It has no age because the consequences of war do not spare any generation. It is the visual embodiment of what happens when humanity loses itself.
Emini does not conceive this portrait as a simple figurative description of pain, but as a sacred act of narration. With every color thrown, he seems to open a new wound, but at the same time leaves a trace of memory. The white in the background, which is almost obliterated by the chromatic load surrounding it, can be read as the dim light of innocence lost. The black, which intensively traverses the face and gives shape to the distorted contours, is the dark shadow that engulfs the being. It is hatred, death, destruction. The red is the fire that burns, the blood that flows, the scream that never stops. The blue on the forehead is the wounded sky, the troubled mind, the silence that screams within itself.
THE ARTISTIC PHILOSOPHY OF PROTEST AND REFLECTION In this profound work, Emini does not speak only of war as a concrete act. He speaks of war as an existential condition, as a symptom of a collective disease that has engulfed humanity. The question the artist adds, "Do those who cause these horrors and those who execute them belong to the human race?" is a philosophical dilemma that transcends the boundaries of art. It is a call for universal introspection. It is a desire to understand how a human, with all the capacity for love, creation, and sensitivity, can become a machine of destruction without mercy.
For Emini, painting is never neutrality. It is a stance. It is revolt. It is testimony and an act of witness. In this sense, this work is a kind of document of the human soul in its darkest moment. It is an attempt to prevent the past from being forgotten and the present from continuing in indifference.
STYLE AND TECHNIQUE – A DEEP EXPLORATION OF THE SOUL Emini’s expressionist style is powerful and uncompromising. He does not attempt to please the eye but to challenge it. The colors are not chosen for harmony, but for impact. The structures are not perfect, but broken. There is a kind of controlled chaos in this work that makes it breathe like a living organism. This is precisely its power: it is not just an image you see, but a sensation that penetrates you, that unsettles you.
The use of color as a tool to convey emotion is masterful. The drawing is not perfect, but felt. There is a daring freedom in the way the painting is built, in how the colors are poured, in how the form is distorted. It is this distortion that makes it real, because true pain has no frame, no straight line, no classical aesthetics. Pain is chaotic, and Emini's art reflects this in an honest and powerful way.
THE MESSAGE – THE ARTIST'S PRAYER FOR PEACE In the end, this work is a prayer. A call that rises above the silence of the world’s conscience. Shefqet Avdush Emini is not just an artist who paints suffering – he is a soul that cries for peace. He uses art as a medium to heal, to remember, to alarm. He does not take sides, but takes a stand. He does not divide by nationality, but by human sensitivity. And above all, he does not forget.
Through this work, Emini reminds us that war is not a closed chapter of history, but a constant threat that hovers over us like a dark cloud. He makes us understand that only through awareness, through empathy, and through the courage to speak the truth can we give meaning to humanity.
CONCLUSION – ART AS RESISTANCE AND MEMORY This painting is not just a work of art. It is an act of resistance. A memory engraved in color. A silent explosion that seeks to awaken the conscience of a world that often chooses not to see. In an era where images of violence have become commonplace and indifference has become a shield, this work calls every viewer to stop, to feel, and to think.
Through this creation, Shefqet Avdush Emini teaches us that art is not just a mirror of the world, but also its conscience. Through this work, he calls on us not to forget, not to remain silent, and above all – not to stop dreaming of a world where peace is not just a word, but a reality.
"PEACE
NOT WAR
GENEROSITY
NOT GREED
EMPATHY
NOT HATE
CREATIVITY
NOT DESTRUCTION
EVERYBODY
NOT JUST US"
* * *
Connect With Us!
Please consider a donation to help with our site costs. All donations are greatly appreciated.
We light a candle for all our friends and members that have passed to the other side.
Gone from our life and forever moved into our heart. ~ ❤️ ~
Two beautiful graphics for anyone to use, donated and created by Shannon Wamsely
Windy Willow (Salix Tree)
Artist Silvia Hoefnagels
Ireland NOV 2020
(image copyright Silvia Hoefnagels)
She writes,
"Love, acceptance and inclusion. Grant us peace."
© 2025 Created by Eva Libre.
Powered by
You need to be a member of Peace for the Soul to add comments!
Join Peace for the Soul