Sunday, October 31, 2010

portland tarot show—opening friday night, november 5


my artwork for the "six of wands—victory" will be in the portland tarot show that opens this friday night at the splendorporium. dozens of artists were invited to draw a card from the tarot deck to determine the card each artist was to paint. a very synchronistic process, to be sure. the card i drew is extremely auspicious to me, as it's meaning relates to success after much hard work.

this is so fitting to my situation, and i am delighted to have drawn this card. in the midst of a huge deadline of 25 interior paintings for the arabic pastry cookbook, i managed to squeeze out a couple of days to work on the painting for the tarot show, which is totally different from the illustrations for the book.

instead of working on small images on white paper with brightly colored paints, i began by gessoing my canvas black. and instead of having a pre-planned drawing worked out, it felt right to work spontaneously, and just follow my intuition. i used interference paints, that work exquisitely on black, and although the theme for the card is joy, the painting is a bit on the dark side. one piece of advice that i learned while researching the meanings for this card is humility...victory with humility. in other words, the opposite of arrogance. a wonderful reminder.

will upload the photos from my camera soon to share with you here. and if you're in portland, please join me and many other artists at the opening friday night from 7 to 9 p.m.


Monday, October 4, 2010

sawaya in beyond borders: arab-american art exhibition, long beach, california


here's the lovely announcement done by artist reem hammad, for the BEYOND BORDERS art exhibition in long beach, california at 2nd city council gallery, this weekend, october 9 and 10. the show is up from noon to 5 p.m. on saturday, with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m.

sunday it is open from noon to 5 p.m. with a children's workshop from 1 to 3 p.m.

address is 435 alamitos avenue, long beach, california...

will be a great show featuring the work of 22 artists—lebanese-american, middle eastern, and american! if you're in the area, it will be worthwhile being there...i imagine great food, music, art, film screenings, and amazing people!
four of my paintings will be shown from the "at the top of the head" series: fireworks woman, spectral woman, rosehead woman, and nimrod woman. they look fabulous framed. also signed copies of my cookbook, alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking will be available!