For the Cumberland Times-News
CUMBERLAND - City native Nadia Janjua, now an architect and freelance artist in Arlington, Va., recently created "30 Days of Autumn," a collection of artwork in which she used leaves from a variety of trees and plant life.
"One October afternoon I took my nieces out to my parents' backyard at our home in Cumberland to collect leaves. Their expressions of joy and wonder at the colors and patterns on the leaves was contagious," said Janjua. "Each leaf had so much character, beauty and poetry, I started collecting them consistently everywhere I went. I've always been intrigued by leaves since childhood, so I took some leaves from my collection this autumn and turned them into creative projects, sometimes attributing a quote or a poem to the leaf, or simple reflections."
"Georgia O'Keefe once said in an interview about her large flower paintings that when you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. She wanted to give that world to someone else; she wanted people to see the flowers, whether they wanted to or not. Similarly, with this collection I wanted to share my reflections of leaves from my quiet walks with others so they, too, could reflect on the beauty of details that surround us every day," she said.
Born and raised in Cumberland, Janjua is a 1997 graduate of Allegany High School, receiving a bachelor's degree in fine arts and biology from George Washington University in 2000. She attended graduate school at New Jersey Institute of Technology, earning a master's degree in architecture in 2005.
She currently manages NJArtitecture, her own architectural design business. Her creative work can be seen online at www.njartitecture.com.
More images of leaves from the "30 Days of Autumn" collection can be viewed at http://www.njartitecture.com/Mastr_Framst_Autumn.htm, and residents may purchase the collection in a small book or as postcards from the Web site. She can be contacted at nadiaj@njartitecture.com.
Janjua is hoping to exhibit and sell posters of the images at downtown art galleries.
