My Art Show Views In Color

As an immigrant, I struggled in my native land but was reborn in the United States. For me, America is a symbol of rebirth, fresh starts, wild frontiers waiting to be settled by new dreams, new ideals, new visions. In this state of rebirth, the past becomes preface, a prelude to the life I was meant to live.
Now I turn my focus to Freedom and Democracy for my native home land and the rest of the Middle East.
In my art show views in color, Women have a great presence in my work because, in the Arab world, women are more oppressed than men. She is not controlled only by a dictator, but also by a husband, father or brother who themselves are not free. She faces fear, limited opportunities .
She is controlled by a religion who wraps her thoughts in a veil. In one of my paintings, a wife asks her husband, who has returned from protesting in Al Tahrir plaza, to wake up and fight again – because she is not yet free. Replacing a dictator for a Mullah is not her idea of freedom.
I straddle both sides of the Arab Spring. As an Iraqi, I have known the oppression that the protestors struggle against but, as an American, I possess the freedom they are fighting for. Though while their journey will take years and maybe generations of blood and tears, I held freedom in my hands the moment I set foot in the United States.
My life is a time machine.
And this exhibit, Views In Color, is a reflection of my journey. And it is a love letter to the United States, a thank you note. Thank you America. In your great land, with your great people, I breathe freedom. And it is your flawed but beautiful democracy that the Arab world now struggles to create for themselves. Thank you America. I am your citizen and I hold your name in my heart for ever.