WHISPER FROM THE UNIVERSE

The Old City. A woman standing in the open door. She is looking at the canvas and is painstakingly painting using her brush. She is painting, not sketching. A moment of sacred confession. What is she experiencing? What is she thinking of? What does she feel? Why does she insist on painting the same line? Why? It turned out that it was not a line at all, but a strip of snow on the mountainside. The line turned into a snowy frame covering the mountains gently, like a shawl. The mountains felt warm and cosy under this cover, looking with benevolent calmness at the rave of green and yellow colours spread beneath. The greatness of mountains is nothing compared to the greatness of a man! Nigar ALIYEVA is a member of the Union of Artists and the Union of Photographers, biologist, candidate of biophysical sciences, associate professor at the Institute of Physiology of the Academy Sciences of Azerbaijan. She loves mountains comparing them to an ode praising the unique diversity of beautiful mountain landscapes. Poet and bard Vladimir Vysotsky was right when he said that "there is no better mountain than the one you have never been on"! Gaps, plateaus, peaks, jagged rocks... It’s all these details that make the works of Nigar so attractive and fascinating. It seems nothing can stop you from immersing into the fantasy world of the artist and run barefoot on the grass or swim in the river flowing down from the foothills...

Nigar Aliyeva was born in Baku into a family of intellectuals, thanks to whom she has developed a genuine interest in, respect for and love of national culture. Into a family where the child’s feelings of humanity and responsiveness were the absolute norm. Where her parents have been able to raise the historically ethnic values to the level of family values.

“My father kindled in the heart of a little girl a genuine interest in Azerbaijani literature, poetry and music. I read Deceived Stars by Mirza Fatali Akhundov when I was 9. At 11, I used to read poems by Mashati Ganjavi. Listening to mughams was a tradition in our home. My father used to tell me that the moment would come when mugham would "flow through my veins like blood". And so it happened.”

"What about your love of visual arts?"

"It has always been an integral part of my relationship with the world. Just like playing the piano. It was no surprise that an 11-year-old girl was studying music simultaneously taking classes of fine arts drawing her childhood world as she sees it. My interest grew into a lasting passion and then a question arose: which path should I choose: music or drawing?"

"You mean choosing the university?"

"Oh, no! I chose the medical university. I have always dreamed of being a good doctor. I passed my exams and got admitted to the department of sanitary-epidemiology, not the one I wanted. But in the end I didn't study at the university and entered the Biology Department of the Baku State University. Currently I work at the Abdulla Garayev Institute of Physiology."

"As..."

"...a biophysic."

"What biophysicists study anyway?"

"The effect of biomagnetic waves on human beings."

"And you abandoned visual arts?"

"No, I didn't. But I gave up my music lessons. It so happened that my parents were friends with both Tahir Salahov and Arif Melikov. Melikov, as you probably know, also painted. Not for fame, but for mental pleasure. And as a daughter of friends of these gentlemen, I kept pestering them asking how I could learn to become a real artist."

"And what did the geniuses of the 20th century answer you?"

"Salahov was categorical saying that you one has to paint the way he feels."

"You mean not with brushes and paints, but with soul?"

"Exactly. Interestingly, Arif Melikov advised against playing music. So, I opted for canvas and the silence of solitude in front of it. And I left making music for exceptional cases as sort of a noisy way of expressing myself. I play according to my moods, but I always paint. I see myself following this path. This is not a profession. This is a way of energy exchange between me and the Universe: mental, emotional, ethereal."

"But you are a member of the Union of Artists, the Union of Photographers..."

"It is a social status. My creative search is a search for the possibilities of one's own soul, for its spiritual transformation."

"How can you express this?"

"Through my creative principle of creating Beauty to fill the World with; not creating Evil..."

"Where does this principle come from?"

"From the Universe, my own cosmic one."

"And you think that your paintings, inspired by whispers from the universe, will be in demand by in the 21st century?"

"Art and painting in our century is the rehabilitation of human soul in the progressing and non-stop world."

"What is your universe whispering you about?"

"It asks me to replicate the Beauty I have created on canvas to learn about the essence of communication between the universe and my soul and vice versa..."

"So painting for you is a way of communicating with the world and your own soul?"

"Every moment of our life is full of mystery. And if it were not for painting, humanity would have to invent an interpreter to translate those moments into thoughts and words."

"How can one catch that very moment in the structure of the current Time, which becomes a chance for artistic revelation?"

"Being open to contact with the universe 24 hours a day."

"Do your skills as a biophysicist help or impede your creation process?"

“Painting is about rehabilitating the soul. Science helps me understand both myself and all the physiological processes going on in our bodies.”

“Your are a biologist by training, candidate of sciences in biophysics, assistant professor at the Institute of Physiology... What do you get out of being in touch with the world of beautiful moments?”

"They all help me produce more dopamine in my brain, which in turn awakens my creative imagination. By drawing, I gained freedom! Freedom to paint the way I feel..."

We had a long conversation about children and parents, about cultural traditions, about preserving moral principles in upbringing, about the importance of versatile education for the younger generation. All of that was taking place in the framework of the women artists' works that were mentally classified according to themes - nudes, flowers, mountains, women, landscapes - and were perceived at the level of their emotional and aesthetic impact. Beautiful landscapes and people, mountains and horses, flowers and... mountains again! And Nigar is right: painting with one's heart, pouring love and harmony into the world around through the perception of the viewer is in fact happiness. Just like happiness to hear the whisper of the universe...