Best In Show in the Radiovision Competition Feb 1, 2008

Food Aid at a Baghdad Mosque or A Day in the Life of an Iraqi Housewife

Acrylic on Canvas  

$700   sold at the opening !!!!!

The last full post of this painting (I posted pictures of it in progress) was on Oct 16.

Finally! Something to put on my resume for studio art.  I have a lengthy resume for theatre but no recognition in my new pursuits in visual art.  I am happy.

Personal Thoughts About the Painting from the Original Post

So many people have asked me to talk about it that decided to bring my feelings snd reason for painting this fromthe first blog post of it to this one so people do not have to search for it.

Oct. 3, 2007

It is inspired by a photo that appeared in a magazine called In These Times.   I could not find the name of the photographer.  The photo is very moving.  I wanted to see if I could translate it into paint and more mood than illustration. The full title, “Food Aid at a Baghdad Mosque or A Day in the Life Of an Iraqi Housewife” is a subject that has haunted me for this entire war.  What in the world would it be like to be a woman in that country, trying to raise a kid or two, keep house, feed your family, do your housework and shopping, provide your kids with a carefree childhood that every kid deserves?  I just can’t imagine. I was so into the rearing of my two.  I was a soccer mom, a PTA volunteer, a Den Mother, an Explorer leader, a stage mother, and I chauffeured them to everything they wanted to participate in. Every mom and dad must be as hopeful for their children. Now every report of a bombing of an Iraqi residency or search of an Iraqi home by our troops in the middle of the night, every bombing in a marketplace leaves me staring into space thinking about how I would have survived that kind of life when I was a young mother. I am not making a statement about any of the politics (though those who know me know I have some definite opinions about that) but rather, a statement about the human conditions of the “war”. While watching the Ken Burns documentary The War I have been horrified over and over….. especially at the plight of civilians. so I wanted to see if I could paint my emotion somehow.

~ by nouveaufauves on February 2, 2008.