The Work
Around the year 2000, while working on a line of Arabic greeting cards for the new millennium, I became an avid researcher for any visual link that connected me with my cultural heritage. I began welcoming into my work the deep appreciation I’ve always felt for the Arab and Islamic culture where my understanding of color and form took shape, and my appreciation for rich patterns evolved. I discovered calligraphy and found myself intrigued by the rich legacy of beauty and elegance that is the Arabic alphabet. At the same time, my artistic curiosity and twenty-five years of immigrant living allowed me the freedom to not only paint, but to also manipulate these scared Arabic and Islamic patterns to create an imaginative landscape in which color and patterns collide. In my current collection, these intricate lines and rich hues always coalesce into abstract renditions of Arabic words, further layering my meanings for them.