Bleeding Peace
2001 - Present
Description
A vertical drawing on cream paper in a palette limited to black, bright red, and medium grey.
At left, running from the upper-left to the lower-left quadrant, is a solid red elongated form with an irregular silhouette, narrowing to a point at the bottom and branching into several prongs at the top. A continuous black line wraps around it, drawn as barbed wire: a looping, spiraling strand punctuated at regular intervals by small four-pointed barbs. The coils extend past the red form at the upper left and along the left edge, and trail off at its lower right.
Overlapping the red form at center-right is a bird in outline, wings raised, body angled toward the lower right, head turned right. Its beak holds a branch that reaches the right edge, carrying small leaf forms. Several red teardrop shapes hang from the branch, the lowest one detached and falling.
The black contours are bold and brush-like, varying in width, with tapering strokes in the wing feathers and tail. Grey is applied as flat fill inside the upper wing and in smaller patches on the lower wing and body, with visible streaking from the applicator. The red shows directional streaks and uneven saturation, layered over itself, and appears beneath the black outlines of the lower wing. In the lower right corner, a handwritten signature in Arabic script in black ink, underlined, with the year 2025 underlined beneath it and a further underlined notation below that.
Artist Notes
The symbols in this painting converge to tell the story of a homeland trapped between dreams and pain. The map of Palestine appears in red, like a heart that never stops bleeding, surrounded by barbed wire that evokes the memory of siege and occupation. Beside it, a dove carries an olive branch from which drops of blood fall, capturing the image of a wounded peace and a land created for life, yet still bleeding for it.
Preservation Notes
PROVISIONAL. All observations below are from visual inspection of a digital image. No physical examination has been carried out. DIMENSIONS Recorded as 42 x 30 with no unit set. The unit field is empty on this record and on all eight works in this collection. Not inferred. Requires confirmation. MEDIUM Recorded as "Velvet Sketch Paper", which names the support rather than the medium. Visual inspection shows bold black contour lines of varying width, consistent with brush or marker, with grey flat fill showing applicator streaking and red worked in layered directional strokes. Dry or marker-based media; no wash or impasto observed. The medium itself is unrecorded. INSCRIPTION Lower right corner: a handwritten signature in Arabic script in black ink, underlined. Beneath it the year 2025, underlined. Below that a further short notation, also underlined, read by automated inspection as "8.0" followed by another character. That reading is not reliable and should not be treated as recorded. The notation may be a month and day, an edition or inventory mark, or something else. Requires a reader. The inscribed year corroborates the recorded year of 2025. SOURCE FILE 1284 x 1870 px, the smallest file in this collection. Aspect ratio only. Physical dimensions not derivable from the file. The lower resolution limits any close reading of the inscription.
