Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Cursed beauty" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
I wish I were a girl physically
Or at least a boy mentally
I wish people could see me
Without judging my beauty

Mehran Hashemi

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Indulged in the apple" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed.

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Life's lemonade" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed.

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Do not underestimate me" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:

do not underestimate me
do not taunt my sensitivity
do not abuse my caring capacity
i have healed from your cruelty
i have set my inner child free
i am as fragile as I want to be
my fragility connects me to life's beauty
your ill-treatment was the making of me
i no longer care what you believe
it is I who holds the key.
Susannah Lee

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Here I stand 3" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours".

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Here I stand" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
Breakdown

i am still standing
after things that I have seen
feeling better now
than I have ever been.
i have searched my soul
broke free of my past
discovering myself
at long last.
shed fears and anxieties
that for so long kept me down
now swimming on the current
on which I almost drowned.
so here I stand
tall and proud
looking forward to a new tomorrow
i have brushed off all doubts and fears
and have no more sorrows.

Donna McCabe

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "In full bloom" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
Endurance

under sheer pressures
and many storms weathered
i have persevered, stood tall
now is my time
to bloom and blossom
celebrate the very roots
that kept me going
helped me through it all.

Donna McCabe

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Pressure" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
i feel extra blood
within my head
that wants to burst
as my heart bleeds
for my body
and sheds tears
for my soul

pressure

Mehran Hashemi

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "I never knew I was a lotus" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
i’m a flower bulb
that was told
it wasn’t meant to bloom
so i never tried

i dipped my world
in pitch black color
and shut out the sun
for years

i turned into the blot
they reduced me to
defined myself by the dirt
i was tossed into

my soul overgrew
with brushwood
and thorns

like a garden
that’s been neglected
and forlorn

i never knew i could shine
through the darkness
of past experiences

i never knew i could rise
through the murky waters
and float upon the surface

i never knew i could bloom
untainted by the mud
from which i emerged

i never knew i was a lotus - not a rose
i grow in different places
i bloom in different ways
but that doesn’t mean
that i’m not worth the same.
[ lotus. ]

Michaela Malek

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Heartbroken" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
for the first time
i was looking for a pain
in my frostbitten soul
to arouse my numb thoughts.

Mehran Hashemi

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "I cry I cry I cry" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
standing in front
of the ashes
of another
wildfire
in my heart

I am empty I am lonely I am torn
I’m deserted I’m rejected I’m alone
I am broken I am wounded I am sore
I’m discouraged I’m defeated I’m forlorn

standing in front
of the ashes
of another
wildfire
in my heart

I cry
I cry
I cry.
[unhappy endings]
Michaela Malek

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Curly hair" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
Far away
i'm feeling like a star
happy for shining
sad for being far away
from the moon

Mehran Hashemi

Watercolor on paper.

15x11"

Original watercolor artwork "Purple tears" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" .

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Don't hide yourself away from the world" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
Someone
dSomeone

don't hide yourself away from the world
show them, be someone.

Donna McCabe

show them, be someone.

Donna McCabe

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Dead things" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
every cell of my brain
is infested
with the stench
of decaying memories
that I'm unable
to let go.
[dead things]

Michaela Malek

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Her only friend" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
'Brown bricks, bare bulbs'

little feet on the cold hallway floor,
raised voices just beyond the door,
cold ice replaces childlike freedom,
this place called home is now a prison.

the almighty thud as mum hit the ground,
a child should never hear that sound.
eyes, too innocent to take it in,
now stuck in time and unable to begin.

upstairs now and the floorboards creak,
just a mattress on the floor
with discoloured sheets.

the view from her window
is another block of flats,
brown bricks, bare bulbs -
she finds safety in that.

a bare bulb,
without a shade is very bright,
the arguing is loud,
but the bulb brings light.

she wonders,
'who is sitting beneath that bare bulb?
a child having her bedtime story told?'

the window is her place to go,
she gets lost in that yellow glow.
disassociation becomes her only friend,
a way to survive... until it ends.

then, it starts all over again,
and the bare bulb, her only friend...

beckons her right back in.


Susannah Lee

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Strange thoughts keep messing with my head" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
When the blues come calling

Feeling enclosed
Alone
Strange thoughts keep
Messing with my head
Drawing my soul
Into a pit of despair
Strength of body
Will and mind
Are numb
A connection laid bare
Eyes fixed upon nothing
Staring into space
Unable to rejoice
In anything.

Donna McCabe

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Am I really healing?" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
did I really escape
when your malevolence still haunts me every night in my sleep?

am I really moving on
when horror has made itself at home in my dreams?

did I really survive
when I'm stuck in the past like an insect in a sticky trap?

am I really healing
when every flashback reveals another knife stabbed in my back?

did I really work it through
when my memories still pulse like an open flesh wound?

am I really being strong
when my skin is so thin I am almost see-through?

[666 questions & not one answer

Michaela Malek

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "I lost my voice" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
i lost my voice
trying to talk to people
who never listened

i lost my mind
trying to fit in places
i wasn’t welcome at

i lost my heart
sowing my love on fields
that weren’t mine to reap

I lost my soul
defining who i am
by what they said i was

i lost EVERYTHING
to the point
i lost myself
completely.

[ i’m out with lanterns, looking for myself ]
Michaela Malek

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Her tears washed up her face" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:

and one day
she couldn't stop crying
her tears washed her face
and awakened her

Mehran Hashemi

Watercolor on paper.

11x15"

Original watercolor artwork "Her mind is a kaleidoscopic madness" 2023 by Ala Ilescu Watercolor on 140 lb paper 11" x 15".Vertical position. Signed. This is the original painting from the art/ poetry book that I published in 2023 "My sad is sadder than yours" Here is the poem featured with this painting:
Kaleidoscope of chaos

who are we to question?
the workings of her mind
some days, she is flying
other days, twisted in a bind

she is a kaleidoscope of chaos
a colourful mosaic vase
she is a beautiful disaster
her reality, just different from ours

she has suffered through every weather
sunny days, whipping winds and biting cold
praying to be untethered
from a mind, she can't control

labelled neurotic - perhaps a bit erratic
labelled manic - but oh, so charismatic
here comes the psychosis
but what if we drop the diagnosis?

just for a moment
let's not be so serious
allow her to unleash all her hidden genius
and live freely, with her kaleidoscopic madness

would her chaos then transcend
into a peaceful life where she no longer has to pretend?
Susannah Lee