Henna as a meaningful expression of art

When I was four or five, I kept a wall in the living room of our old Stamford apartment for all my art. “Alina’s Art Gallery” of drawings, scraps, and hearts I colored in red, cut out, and taped up. Then in middle school, I had random phases of all types of creativity. Painting with watercolor, gouache, drawing with oil pastels or Prismacolor colored pencils. Embroidery for a bit. I learned how to stitch a french knot and petals surrounding that to make a flower. I embroidered the Kanye West Graduation bear’s face on a plain black baseball hat for my brother’s birthday gift. I learned how to knot macrame and keep my masterpiece hanging in my room. And despite being attached to school art classes, I never truly found my medium until I started doing henna. 

There is so much beauty in Henna. The traditional art that has linked hands of generations of South Asians. The complex adornment on a bride's special day. A symbol of joy and celebration. A token of remembrance for every Eid or Diwali, looking pretty with your shalwaar kameez. Having to wait with the paste on your skin for a good stain; good things come with patience. 

The way a mandala mesmerizes in its circular intricacy. The way vines decorate fingers and dangle. The way stars, crescents and suns sparkle on the palm in celestial henna designs, like you touched the sky. Bridal henna just blows me away—each detail being a compilation of many designs at once, and covering the entire hand up to the elbow. 

Even the cultivation and creation of Henna, how it comes from the Earth. A plant grown only in tropical climates. Its leaves dried and crushed into a powder to be mixed with lemon juice and oils. To be left overnight, mixed and blended, now smooth, strained, and piped into cones to be used and sold. This process, tediously beautiful, leaves your hands stained unwantedly, which is why I don't do it. 

Henna is a generous art. To put this much labor and patience into, rewarding with an ornate stain. Impactful, lingering for a week, catching eyes and turning heads. Henna is a generous art because henna artists like me have chances to personally impact others. One-to-one exchanges where I do henna on women and learn their genuine story. Connection and pride. I strive implement a cultural pride, that comes with mehndi naturally, especially in younger desi girls. "Our culture is beautiful and so are you." Henna is a symbol of identity. It also just looks cool!! Allowing one to express their style by staining their skin with any design, quote, symbol.

For all these reasons, henna brings me peace and comfort. The way that art should make you feel. Those moments of connection or relaxation keep me going honestly. When I'm overwhelmed or had a bad day at school, I look forward to going home and putting on a show/playlist/podcast/audio book and just doing henna. Endless designs to choose from that haunt my mind like the doodles from that flood the margins of my school notebooks. I often yearn to do henna, to create and heal through it. 

I also see Henna in a lot of things, a shared art. The arches on hands are also in Lahore, Agra, Abu Dhabi; crossing over with Mughal architecture. Actually, Islamic architecture is another thing I really love and admire, so after recently seeing the Grand Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, I've been wanting to create a henna design inspired by it. In desi clothing, the embroidery entails of something you would or could see in a henna design. I can match your henna perfectly to the details of your lehngha (book me 😉😉). 

Anyway, I know I'm obsessed with henna, don't judge me. After reading this, isn't it so much cooler than you thought? Henna is so meaningful to me and as if I couldn't get more obsessed, I'm planning to base my AP Art portfolio on Henna and investigate how it can be in every tradition, fabric, mosque, hand, ceramic piece and more. Pieces will include specific mosques and traditions with henna intertwined somehow. A decorated hand reaching for Eid sweets or on an Iftaar table. In the details of the Taj Mahal.

I'm so excited to bring these ideas to life and keep creating art with henna. Each design and henna-inspired piece is close to my heart because it is such a meaningful art.