paintings
When the brush touches the canvas, a universal door opens.
It connects memories, sensations, and beliefs!
Behind his Smile
Art has saved me from the effects of trauma that war has caused me. It showed me that art can help to overcome pain and traumas. It brought comfort, peace, and healing.

One of the situations that had an impact on my life is when I witnessed someone shot another person in front of my eyes then walked towards me trying to hide his gun with a smile on his face.

In that split second, many questions were raised in my mind like: Why is he smiling? Is he happy after killing someone? His face was appearing daily in my dreams until I transformed the pain into something beautiful.

I started my artistic research by painting these questions over and over again to bring me some clearance. As an artist, only art was my tool to look for answers.

The layers of colors in these portraits of his face gave me an understanding of the situation and healed me from trauma.

Grasping the light

Paintings represent the struggles that people face,

such as poverty, survival, and many others...

Where is home?
My grandparents had been forcibly displaced from Palestine in 1948. Since that day, a part of my identity was burned as the olive trees in Palestine.
I was a survivor child who had no land or nationality to belong to.

In 2015, I left Syria (where I have spent my life) to move to the Netherlands.

My investigation started with the discussion of; where do I belong? to a land I have never seen? or to another where I was born but never held its nationality? or to the land, that I couldn't speak its language?

I painted the history of my ancestors, my survival journey, and the hope to build the missing pieces of my home.

Drawings
Our faces hold our past. Each time we think, laugh or cry. We leave a mark that tells us about life.