I’d always dreamt of visiting one particular city. When I was a kid, I loved playing that game where you stared at each other and if you blinked, you lost. This was like me and this city. Neither of us blinked. Neither of us turned away. We always looked at each other, from a distance. And in 2013, I went to this city for the first time. A city, called New York.
It wasn’t the physical space that captured my endless attention. It was the space that I couldn’t see that pulled me in its direction, like a super-sonic-magnet ‘thing’, and I was a paperclip (is that even a thing? I guess it is now). As time went on, I was a witness to this ‘place’ harvesting the hearts of millions of dreamers and imagineers before me. Like many of you reading this, I knew I too would find a piece of me there.
One of the moments that I’ll never forget was walking through the streets of Soho with my partner Vivian. We wandered through pockets of serenity. It was easy getting lost in artworks in quiet walkways that were displayed by local artists on the footpaths.
But there was one. One painting that spoke to me like none before.
Below is a photo of that exact encounter in 2013:
As soon as I shot this photo, I heard someone behind me say “Her name is Rainfall”.
It was the artist, Parris Jaru.
Now, although I couldn’t afford to buy ‘Rainfall’ at that time, I always thought about her.
Paris describes ‘Rainfall’ as; “She is drenched by her creativity, sensuality and her desire to live.”
No wonder I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She captured a big part of my identity.
So two years on, something special happened. Recently, after a very special anniversary dinner with my partner Vivian, who was with me at that time in New York, she did something that made time stop a little.
I walked into my room, turned on the light… and there she was. Standing in front of me. ‘Rainfall’ had made her way from New York all the way to Sydney.
I couldn’t believe it. And even as I write this, I’m exploding with inspiration and happiness. It’s hard to explain, but it’s a little like flying mixed with a heightened level of peace and appreciation.
Below is a photo of what Parris Jaru wrote with the painting:
I hope that you too can find your ‘Rainfall’.
Love,
Ram
Ram is an award winning Design Director, Blogger, top ranking Podcaster, Speaker, CreativeLive.com Instructor and Author of two internationally acclaimed books 'How to get a job as a designer, guaranteed' and 'How to get a mentor as a designer, guaranteed'. He's based in Sydney, Australia and in 2012, started the blog GiantThinkers.com which helps thousands of design students and graduates be employed. Ram has since been featured in Communication Arts, HOW magazine, Herman Miller, deFrost*, AIGA.org and Apple.
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