The power of imagination

31/05/2025 Nilson Lattari

Drawing is a good way to put everything we imagine down on paper. We can draw words, curves and lines to create impossible things that exist only in our minds. Imagination feels like dreams in motion, and a way to pursue goals beyond reality. We may compare this art to the flowing lines of a woman’s hair blowing in the wind, letting our fantasy dare to capture them.
When I have an insight, my pencil glides on the paper, moving up and down, like raindrops falling from the sky. And then, there are colours – these colours that wander around the world, becoming objects of desire within strange souls. Even though I haven’t met them yet, I can sense them inside me when I close my eyes.
I love curves, moving to provoke vertigo and twirls in my mind. Entangled in these curves, I draw smiles that I can see on your lips, while I watch you.
My model only has a minimal idea about what I’m thinking, because it lives on a blank canvas where I haven’t drawn it yet. I created each line, nuance, curve and contour of its silhouette. The image starts forming, and my imagination begins to fade. It is an unreachable dream, and I find myself sketching every detail I imagine when I think of her, a woman.
But she has no soul within her. A cloud cannot suddenly come to life. This fog is a cloak hiding me, and now I have a perfect hiding place away from everyone. The picture starts to become reality, but still, there is no soul, and I don’t know where to start or finish my challenge to make this dream come true.
I explore every corner of my imagination, and the image takes shape more and more. Drawing is materialising incomprehensible places headed by my pencil, the master of my destiny. My curiosity is like a door that opens on its own, and when it closes, darkness surrounds a designer with voyeuristic eyes.
At last, I have my final layout, and I go outside to search for faces and bodies, hoping to find someone to match my desire. There is no one similar to your image. I blame myself because I cannot draw you as you are.
I go back to the paper where your image lies. I try to change your smile, but I suffer because your smile is exactly the one that captivated me, and something inside me tells me that you are looking for me, too. Your smile says that I must restart my search, because there is someone out there waiting for me.
I waste my time staring at your image and conclude that my search is unsuccessful. I realise that my fascination is greater than yours. In reality, I enjoy loving and believing that the one I love doesn’t exist. Can we fall in love with a mirage, like a lost traveller in the desert, walking with sand in their eyes and living in darkness?
The wanderer’s stubbornness, who simply enjoys walking, inflames my thirst to touch you. I’m the mad adventurer who loves landscapes, even if their goals are untouchable. And I conclude that yes, it is possible to fall in love with a figure I create by myself.