Identity and Authorship

Here are three art works that I admire, and have inspired my final project:

The Calligrapher's Garden

By Hassan Massoudy

Is a collection of elegant Arabic calligraphy illustrations, picking up a key word from different Arabic, Turkish, Spanish and Japanese proverbs. The book has different colors of the four seasons; Greens, Blues, Yellows and Oranges and the calligraphy reflects the different seasons in its shapes.

My favorite of them all has to be: ‘If I am made of earth, this is my country entirely and all humans are my brothers’

Now Massoudy had different illustrations of this one, I am not sure why? But maybe it was one of his favorites as well, or maybe because it had more than one key word that is worth illustrating. (Earth, Human, Brothers)

In the book, the color or season picked out for this one was more in the fall reddish colors. In my opinion it can also relate to human blood. The strokes are quit thick and solid, showing solidarity in between humans, they are also over lapping showing the connection between humans and the oneness.

The First Grail

By Margaret Keane

In her own words Margaret Keane said "The eyes I draw on my children are an expression of my own deepest feelings. Eyes are windows of the soul."

Her personal life and story totally reflects in her paintings, the fact that for years her husband took credit for her work, she was sad and confused but let it happen in order to make a better life for her self and daughter.

Not only the sad big teary eyes give her emotions away, but also the settings in where the girl is standing, the light at the end of the tunnel is actually behind her and not ahead, and the tunnel is cold, dark and grey. The clothing of the girl seems to be dirty like she has been going through a lot.

The Desperate Man

By Gustave Courbet

Courbet has to be one of my favourite artists and favourite paintings. One of the masters of realism Courbet detailed painting of the desperate man, which is a self portrait, makes me want to reach that level with my art, in terms of the level of realism.

I have read that this one was one of his early work before he had yet mastered his realistic painting style. I really like how illustrated the smooth lines and perfect form of the Romantic school of painting.

This is what i have come up with combining elements from the three inspiring works above:

The Eye Of A Human

By Fahad Hawandaji

I focused on the human inspired by Margaret Keane's Big Eyes, and in my art and portrait drawings, I would like to reach the level of realism of Courbet. In the Eye ball the word Human is written in Arabic bringing in the calligraphy from Massoudy's garden.