The Traveling Grief
1984 - Present
Description
“The Traveling Grief” is a mixed-media work that combines expressive painting with a collage of boarding passes. The composition is dominated by frantic, heavy black brushstrokes and textured patches that sweep across the surface, forming what appears to be a vast cloud threatening to engulf a space in the left corner. These chaotic, intense strokes evoke powerful emotions—emotions that are ultimately defined by each viewer, just as grief manifests differently for every person.
The boarding passes add a conceptual layer, symbolizing how grief accompanies us across journeys and transitions. Grief, after all, creates new versions of ourselves and fragments our memories and sense of belonging. This reinforces themes of loss and the ongoing search for meaning amid the chaos that grief brings.
In the left corner, a figure in red stands empty and ambiguous—perhaps kneeling, exhausted, or broken. The surrounding black chaos seems to press ever closer, encroaching on the figure, suggesting how overwhelming sorrow can threaten to consume both mind and soul.
Artist Notes
What is grief? That was the question that haunted me for some time. After my father passed away in 2019, I wrote an article mourning him titled “Beyond Habeas Viscus: Mourning my Father.” My father died just hours after I landed in Beirut, and I began writing the piece while traveling to a conference a few weeks later. The weight of mourning and grief was pervasive. For years, I carried “grief” as an abstract image—a mixture of sadness, darkness, depression, tears, silence, chaos, and heaviness. When I chose to paint that feeling, I had only one option, drawing on what I had read about grief and loss after my mother was killed. It felt like a heavy burden, almost kneeling me to the ground. As Gazans say, “It breaks my back.” This artwork became a representation of strong emotions arriving all at once—a collage of boarding passes that symbolize how grief travels with us.
