Grazia Middle East recently highlighted artist Adra Kandil, who uses her art to creatively inspire self-inquiry. Her artwork is profound; it mixes in deep question and longingness, with a dreamy manifestation quality. It is combined with the levity of pastel colors, space themes, magical realist touch, and a cosmic quality. She is self-described as “creating the cosmos” on her Instagram page @dear.nostalgia. Her artwork inspires you to think outside the box, and also shows that images can be more powerful than words, as they can give a completely unique insight to ideas, frustrations, emotions, hopes, and dreams; even a doorway into a potential reality, weather that is in the past, present, or future.
Grazia Middle East shared on Instagram, “Some may be used to using words to touch base on trending cultural and social topics, but Adra Kandil prefers to use her digital canvas. Tap the #linkinbio to read more about @dear.nostalgia, the Lebanese artist who uses art to address topics that matter to her.”
She also suggests powerful phrases; is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew? This is a generational reality for those who grew up after or during a time where their country experienced drastic changes due to violence, war, and other inhabitable conditions. The shock this change creates a ripple affect through the generation, and although they never were present during this world, they feel it’s absence very deeply.
Along with her dreamy motif, her artwork touches around the important topic of self-love. Many people struggle to redirect themselves selfishly towards replenishing themselves, although it is not exactly a selfish pursuit, as the world will not fill you unless you set out to first. For Valentine’s day, she re-framed the narrative to be about self-love, rather than an empty Hallmark exchange of flowers and chocolate with a partner that is bereft of meaning. She shares the following post:
“chaos. euphoria. dreams. melancholia. nostalgia. soft. loud. you. f*ck valentines- love every fucking day.
If you’re reading this, this is for you 💓💖.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ9p-0DMsCH/
Her message with another post is:
“nostalgia drives into our dreaming. Like everything else, I take on light and color from outside myself. But you’re the sky, not a cloud. I’m the cloud. I gather and dissipate, but you are always here. Leave a message for me if you can. Break a twig on the lilac. Listen to the scratches of the vinyl then then the music. Then dance on and remember 💫 – a collage of words by Adra in 2021 and Chase Twitchell in 1950.”