art news and holiday greetings from linda dalal sawaya

i'm delighted to have sent my freshly designed art news email yesterday with colorfully good information  including my teaching art classes starting in january after a two year sabbatical! instead of in my studio, they will be taught at Village Gallery of Arts in the cedar mill area of portland.

Monday Night Collage class returns! this popular class i've taught over the years culminating a few years ago in a student exhibition at Washington State University, Vancouver campus, is great fun and starts up again in mid-January. sign up through their website; no experience necessary, and all materials provided.

this collage is by a wonderful artist nicknamed Kosmic Karen—her first collage of many exquisite ones done in my classes.

two workshops: collage and acrylic paint, and soulcollage® coming up in the new year in the same location have me very excited to get back to teaching as they are both great fun!  

my Tree of Life painting was mailed in poster size to a few thousand people by Friends of Sabeel North America for their Christmas fundraising appeal with a letter from Archbishop Desmond Tutu—an honor and a blessing to be sure! FOSNA does significant work working for peace in Palestine and Israel, which i support wholeheartedly, and encourage you to support as well.

one last item included is a special holiday offer for copies of my book, alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking! email me to get your gift copies now!

wishing you all many blessings, happy holidays, and peace to all!

cover art goes around the world again!

my lebanese family cookbook, alice's kitchen: traditional lebanese cooking, was launched into the world in a fabulous way by being first excerpted in Aramco World magazine, Jan/Feb. 1997, in an article titled "Memories of a Lebanese Garden", which i wrote and illustrated using photos transferred onto paper with acrylic paint and collage. this was marvelous—our book received great international exposure, as many thousands of copies were distributed across the globe!

letters poured in from people all over the world who wanted to connect—very grateful to see positive images of arabs for a change, and delighted to find recipes their grandmothers made but had been long lost, and to share that the people in the photo illustrations reminded them of their fathers, uncles, sisters, and so on. and most of all, they wrote love letters sharing their own beautiful family stories. our story brought tears to their eyes and their letters and stories brought tears to our eyes. this was more than we ever could have imagined and such a huge blessing and gift! it expanded my family far beyond my own. friendships were made that continue to this day, with love being the essence of it all—expressed through making food with love and sharing it with generosity and beauty.

a few days ago my dear iraqi friend, aseel, phoned up to ask if i'd seen the latest issue (Nov/Dec) of the now titled, Saudi Aramco World and to congratulate me. this issue has a 2010 calendar insert celebrating  60 years of publishing their exquisite publication. my illustrated cover from the 1997 issue is the image chosen for their 1990s decade! my mother and i were "cover girls" and their choice of this issue to represent a decade is an honor and a delight! alice's spirit lives on and travels around the world!!! we are "cover girls" once again!