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Artist's statement:
I never dared try painting until the summer of 2017, when the Expressive Art Workshop opened for the ladies of the
Women’s Workshop through the Protection Department at Basmeh & Zeitooneh.
While I sat and watched with curiosity the beautiful paintings the other ladies were drawing, I came close to see how they were doing it. This beauty drew me in, so I took up a brush, a set of colours, and a white empty canvas.
I sat quietly, not knowing what I have to do. I just started painting, not knowing what I am drawing, until I saw my mother’s face – the beautiful, strong, orphaned woman that gave birth to 5 sons and 6 daughters, and I was her first born child. She named me Fatima. She was only 15 years old.
She feared everything around us. She raised us with all her love and tenderness. She was our mother, our friend, our teacher, and our doctor, until we became grownups – good willed, full of knowledge, and cultured. All she ever wanted was to keep us together around her.
Until the horrible war started in 2011, and took everything away.
All 5 of my brothers dies during this war. My mother became very weak, her back slumped from feeling heavy, and she lost some of her sight.
But for me, she will remain the beautiful and strong woman that still awaits her sons’ return at the door of her home. My beautiful mother, I took my strength from your small eyes and your suffocated voice.
My name is Fatima KHALIFA