borrow / charm // wurster

I have recently been very interested in photography and wanted to integrate that into my paintings. I enjoy taking photographs of ordinary places but perhaps in an unconventional way, or in a way that enhances the formal conditions of a certain space.

I believe that painting can further enhance that abstraction by changing the colors in which that composition and shapes are viewed in order to create a somewhat distorted reality.

I borrowed this composition of shapes from Wurster, it is an image of the studio ceiling. Wurster is a place that has been my second home for quite some time now, so it becomes easy to overlook some of the intricate moments happening in the space; or conversely, it could lead a new way of viewing them. It is also a building that isn’t typically appreciated, but that I have found increasingly more attractive over the years. This could be a result of the countless hours I’ve spent here, or due to its innately intriguing aesthetic, but either way it is anything but a boring space and structure.

I used a similar color palette as the previous painting, and one that I have been trying to expand on. I am drawn to these colors, and I believe the choice of colors is generally an important stage in my painting process. I wanted to abstract the image and distort the space in order to create a representation that is simultaneously decipherable and ambiguous. It is also, in a sense, a color study (just as Albers would define it) since the interactions of the same colors in different contexts give rise to a different reading of them in certain instances.

glimpse / overhear

The process of this painting was very reminiscent of my first project in which I outlined the lines present on a piece of wood. The material, namely the piece of wood, was essential to the way in which the project took shape. The lines I traced were informed by the material in question; my contribution is the choice of color and material that I used on the piece of wood.

Similarly in this painting, I became intrigued by the canvas material, making shapes following the structure of the canvas itself: a closer look at the canvas allow you to notice the miniature and informal grid that the cloth provides.

I was also interested in using a palette knife rather than a paint brush to apply the paint. I wanted to explore the application of varying thicknesses of paint rather than the thin layer I generally use. The colors are just a palette that I have been drawn to recently, and can be seen in many of the works I’ve done throughout the semester.

The various rectangles provide glimpses of possible worlds creating through paint, as opposed to the blank canvas surrounding them. They are passages of color, potentially inciting different moods. Some of these shapes also bleed out of the canvas, suggesting that the field of vision proposed by the canvas is simply cropped from a larger condition. Leaving traces of the material used (the canvas) uncovered is also a theme that I have been interested in. The idea of showing the process, and having the canvas not be simply a vessel for the artwork but itself being part of it. Treating the painting more like a drawing in that sense, where the white space is intentional and significant.

veil / begin

This was an attempt at elaborating on one my notebook sketches that I found compelling. Although I believe using pastels was not as successful as a pen. Through the use of linear shading in different directions I wanted to create possible interpretations of three-dimensional spaces and structures imbedded within a drawing that seems more abstract and flat.

You can begin to view different kinds of spaces and dimension within these images. 

found + delve // ummi

During the past few years, especially after leaving home, I have been reconnecting with my mother in a different way. I also view her and the influence she has had on me in a whole new light. I have "found" myself in her in many ways and continue to delve into how that relationship is formed. She is a large part of why I am so intrigued by the arts and why I seek to create. Although we might have divergent ideas on certain aspects of life, ultimately, much of her way of thinking has transferred onto me; she has an openness and lightness of being that I admire.

أمي pronounced "ummi" is arabic for "my mother." This relates back to my mother tongue, and the language I use when speaking to my mother.

I couldn't find a picture that I was content with using for this portrait, so I asked my 15-year-old sister to take one of our mother for me. With a few guidelines on lighting, she managed to take one through her eyes. I therefore see this painting as not just mine, but one that is my sister's and mother's as well; with a contribution from all three of us. This also illustrates the fact that I have become evermore connected to the women in my family, my grandmother, my mother and my sister. They are very important and dear to me, and I increasingly see bits and pieces of us in each other. 

restore + nourish + feed // between flatland and an added dimension

This was more of a formal and visual exploration. I began by making the sculptures, distancing myself from an attempt to render a figuratively accurate depiction of what a face is. Instead I formed these with the thought of sculpting a painting. Going from a flat representation to one that is three-dimensional.

I then reversed that process but going back into a flat form of expression, on a sheet of bristol. I found that both these methods were nourishing and informing one another, restoring the preconceived notions of what one might have of either to ultimately feed into the possibilities that lie in their production. It is the idea that one does not necessarily need to precede the other, but that they exist and function in tandem.

tarry + join // scapes in progress

When thinking of the duality of these words: tarry and join, I was reminiscent of the many environments that I was and continue being shaped by. I tried to capture the SF Bay Area; Saida, Lebanon and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, attempting to illustrate the feeling and colors of the places.

Although I began with a clear delimitation for each of these, I gradually began expanding beyond the borders intended, and I saw that to be relevant to the word join. These places linger in my mind and experiences, and continue to take part in my worldview, and although they are discrete places in different geographical locations, in my mind they begin to connect and intertwine. One sense of place bleeds into another; they all inform one another and transform each other simultaneously.

Besides noticing the visual relation between the palette and the painting I was working on, I thought it was appropriate to keep those colors as a testament to the fact that this painting, and this worldview is in constant flux, it is a work in progress and will forever remain that way. 

return // light water

This is a return to the beach and its colors. The beach has been a big part of my childhood, since I spent most of my summers in the Mediterranean Sea in Lebanon.

I find myself now living near a huge body of water once again, but this time it is the biggest one in the world, and we are at the very edge of it. There is something about this that I can never get used to. The colors produced by this body of water and its interaction with the sunrays is something I find absolutely magical, and even divine. I have never seen such mesmerizing colors and I am astonished at an almost daily basis about the fact that these are naturally occurring.

This piece is more about colors and capturing the feeling of them. It’s about lightness and subtlety. There is something about the bay, especially at dusk or dawn, that transports you briefly somewhere else. The colors change and so does your perception of the space.

edge // child's play

This is quite a political drawing. I've recently been very taken by events relating to Syria and Palestine. I often get into deep holes relating to these issues (and others of course) but for the passed couple of years these have been dominating and recurring topics in the region.

It pains me to think that Netanyahu and Assad have the mental and emotional capacity to treat people this way, for the selfishness of power. Destroying homes, families and history to pave the way for a reality that they are in control of.

In this drawing Netanyahu and Assad are receiving christmas presents: weapons. They are excited little children. It is also ironic because neither of them practice christianity. This is a commentary on both these regimes but also their driving force, since they are backed by the USA and Russia respectively, receiving most of their military aid from these wealthy nations.

So many lives blur in the background of political and TV screens that it becomes difficult to distinguish who they are anymore.

long // deep time

When thinking of the word long, the first think to come in mind is time. Time is long, maybe not for our individual lives but deep time is, the only physical reality we've known in theory has had time. Maybe it slows down at times and speeds up at others depending on our experience of it but it's present at all times. The vast occupancy of time onto our understanding of existence is also something very difficult to grasp, something that I would like to say I understand but probably don't really. Because it is all relative, compared to our snippet of time spent in existence time is inconceivably long.

Here is a physical manifestation of time, the rings generally represent a year based on the tree's experience of seasons. Time is something imbedded in nature and very beautifully so. I wanted to emphasize this by retracing them. It was a very meditative process in itself, forcing you to focus on the moment being: the present; which is arguably a moment that doesn't exist or one that is always in existence.

It is also interesting to note that this is a piece of wood manufactured by man, it isn't naturally found in this state. I have recently been very intrigued by wood as a material since it is the only living entity we use as a material. And although we try to tame nature, use it and control it in some ways, just as we did here, ultimately we are all subject to the same workings of time. 

who am I?

I cannot confidently answer that question since the self is a difficult task to undertake. I can, however, give you a few stories and facts about what I have been through, what I am doing and where I hope to be, in the hopes of fashioning a somewhat telling image of myself.

I am a 22 year-old student, currently in my fourth and final year at UC Berkeley. I am majoring in architecture but have had the pleasure of taking many exciting classes in other disciplines that I've been equally enthralled by, including philosophy, art, sociology, math, physics and more.

The question of where I am from is a puzzling part of my identity I often find myself trying to answer, just as I know many others do, given we live in a increasingly globalized world. I spent the first eighteen years of my life in Saudi Arabia but I am not a Saudi citizen. I attended a French school until the age of fifteen and I also hold a French passport, but never lived in France besides the five months I spent studying there in 2014. My parents grew up in Lebanon, and that is where we spend almost every holiday, since most of my extended family lives there. I have also been living in California for the past four years, which has impacted me to a certain extent, and given the nature of the media, I have also been very influenced by American culture ever since a young age. Make of it what you would like, but I cannot give you a short answer about where I am from without feeling like I'm selling myself short. But for the sake of brevity, it happens quite often.

Belonging to several cultures also means that I don't completely belong to either of them. I could simply say I am a citizen of the world, which I am, but culture is heavy, passionate and expressive, and I don't think it should be painted over in one color.

I'm not sure where I would like to be in ten years, I couldn't even tell you where I'll be in the next ten months but I know that I want to feel passionate about what I am doing. I love to create and I love to read and learn. Education is what I've been doing my entire life and I really do enjoy it, but I am ready to see what the working world has to offer.