A Mother's Song Painting

A Mother's Song, is a painting one out of 20 of the solo exhibition (16x20x20)I had in Washington DC. During my worldwide travels, I collected many stretching bars (size 16X20) and canvases from different countries and brought them to the U.S. The stretched canvases all appear to be the same with no visible differences. Yet, they are from diverse origins. When I initially began working on these canvases, I forgot their roots. However, I realized that they all had one thing in common: they are all from places of exile. They are expatriates. They are newcomers. With this in mind, I started to depict this theme of exile, displacement and diaspora. Here, in this exhibition, I also attempt to touch the deep inner feelings of those people who leave a place they call home—voluntarily or involuntarily—to move to an unfamiliar place. I feel that these figures are whispering to each other: “Bring water with you if you come to live here, pour it in the lake …don’t forget to bring fronds from the old palm tree from your house, don’t worry, they will not wither…If you can, bring the moon with you. The moon in our country is different.” Despite the relatively small size of the canvases, I depict the characters on them as having energy, life, and care. I painted classical paintings with an expressionist style making the final result look extemporaneous, but these compositions are intended to be in this manner. Indeed, I worked in multiple layers to create an equilibrium between spontaneity/impulsiveness and premeditation/deliberation to show the inner impressions in distinctive ways. Each painting inspired a poet to write a poem about it: Kat Kambes, wrote her poem about this painting: You hold a mother's love outside a ghosted house quiet whispers grieve with each breath - Up. Down. Up. Down. Entwine your mourning having the tart taste of a cherry and the sticky sweetness of a fig that lingers on in the child's mind cradled in the mother's arms in the strength of your palm. She has yet to really know the fiery breath of home.

Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:16 W x 20 H x 0.5 D in

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