The only thing more inspiring than gazing languidly at Nahda Balaa’s paintings of intimate Parisian café scenes or elaborate Spanish doorways, is talking to her. Her sanguinity and harmony is infectious. Nahda’s insightful artistic journeys can be adopted in all areas of women’s lives, as we travel through the excitement and challenges that make up our own individual experiences. Her upbringing in Lebanon, her art training in Florence, Italy, and her subsequent life journeys have produced the substance for the scenes she creates, providing the experience for all of us to engage in.
To Nahda, these vivacious hues, especially her reds, convey the latest of her annual journeys. “People are attracted to red. It is optimism, it is happiness.” Red is a color she began using much more often during her journey with breast cancer. “This was the most fantastic journey of all,” says Nahda, now in remission. “The only difference between cancer and traveling is I did not get to plan the itinerary myself.” Discussing cancer, Nahda is serene yet joyous. Her perception is truly amazing to behold. “The cancer was not an illness,” she says, “but a new opportunity to explore and experience.”
Nahda’s philosophy about her most recent travels is visualized in the lively colors she applies to her surfaces. “Red represents life and happiness,” Nahda explains. The red of roses, flowers she cultivates at her home, flowers that to her are positive metaphors for the journey of cancer. “Just as I spray the roses every year,” she states, “I had to get chemotherapy. The body needs care and maintenance, just as flowers do.” The processes of the body are analogous to the beauty and serenity of roses.
“A common perception of art produced during such times is that the subject matter becomes melancholy, and the colors become doomed and muddy. My art was not affected by suffering,” says Nahda. “The colors became more alive; the art had more texture and more red and more happiness. Painting in such a way allows me to educate others about cancer. I’ll talk about it anywhere; this journey never ends.”
Nahda sends a message of pride and happiness both with her paintings as well as through her charitable contributions. “Very soon, I will walk a total of 26.2 miles in a San Francisco marathon to raise money for breast cancer. I have already raised $3000 for this,” she explains.
Nahda’s approach to life likely stems from her balanced upbringing. “I come from the Middle East, born and raised in Lebanon. My childhood was spent painting and reading comics and magazines brought by my father from his bookstore—the first bookstore in Saudi Arabia,” reminisces Nahda. In 1976 in the midst of a Lebanese civil war when she was 19 years old, Nahda’s father cultivated her artistic talents by taking her to Florence to study art. “My father chose a school in a 16th century castle on Piazza de Michelangelo,” she remembers. “Before he left me, alone for the first time in my life, he told me one thing I will never forget: ‘You are now the ambassador of your country and your family. Now you on your own.’ Now I am 48. I still remember what my dad told me. It is a beautiful way of acting.”
