MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Candles aren’t something you’d normally find renowned artist Ephraim Urevbu crafting, but he’s found another way to share his art and his personal desire for peace in our world. “I just felt that we need to begin to change the conversation by infusing some positive energy.”
Each candle features Urevbu’s original artwork and is emblazoned with a word meant to touch the mind and spirit. “If you’re going through something at that moment and that word believe shows up think about what that can do for you.”
Urevbu said terrorist attacks abroad and at home encouraged him to get his candles out now. He said the images that people see are mostly negative. People are looking for ways to heal and uplift their spirits.
“Suppose I can capture people’s attention at that period that they are meditating with kind, loving words, how would that change the equation,” he said.
Right now the candles are in English and Spanish, but Urevbu plans to have them translated to several other languages.
“Our goal is to get people to connect as individuals, as a group as a nation.”
For those who say freedom candles are a simplistic approach to complex and troubling times, it simply takes the right movement at the right time to bring about change.