Wooden Strings

"This was my concept (read between the lines). Being someone's doll is like having your hair brushed like silk, having a new unseen color be named after you... it's like dancing in a blanket of stars... ... it doesn't take long until you realize you're being locked behind a rainbow of bars... the sparkling stars are nothing but a camouflage... the dress were knit to fool you, the jewels were cut to fascinate you... everything in the set invites you in... you went for the trap of an exhilarating melody of notes but you missed out on the sound of the huge golden gate shutting down right behind you... you went for the mouthwatering smell of poisonous mushrooms... you gave up to your heroine of greed... you can still break free... it's only a matter of choice." By Shereen A. Amarin.

Many thanks to Omar Amarin, Rawan Zreikat, Dunia Ghasib and Ala'a Amarin for all the support and the good times...

Oil Painting

I still remember when I asked my instructor about the way him and other students painted, where they somehow abbreviate the structure and build the painting out of a wide range of colored brush strokes. He then told me that painting is like language, it doesn't matter what language you speak as long as you're speaking it right.

Also it turned out that the style I'm working with is much harder than the one I liked!? And if I can get better in it, then it wouldn't be hard to learn the easier one. Those two portraits are my father and my sister Ruba, a grueling exercise that I needed so bad.

Mistakes...

This video shows seven stages of my father's portrait painting process. You will notice that I did a lot of mistakes with colors, and tried so hard to fix them over and over again... Until I came up with a final combination, which unfortunately is not even close to what I had in mind! It's strange and tough. But as my friend Mike said: "Education is a necessary evil", We slowly, painfully yet unmistakably absorb these skills, and sneak in what really provokes our learning: the imagination.