Unaccompanied
12” x 9”, oil on canvas
This was the first portrait I completed in the series We Dream of a World Not Threatened by Destruction (We Dream of a World at Peace). It depicts a displaced child whose photograph was published by Al-Jazeera News, in an article from February reporting over 17,000 children separated from their parents in the Gaza Strip. It dried with grass stuck to its surface, a reminder that it was painted in public demonstration, and that it hung outside my tent to dry as Passover, our season of liberation, began and three hundred and fifty Palestinians were found in a mass grave behind al-Shifa hospital. As I returned to my tent from a seder, I was warned to prepare for arrest.
The portrait’s proceeds will go to Abed Zagout, the photojournalist who captured its inspiration, who has escaped with his family to Egypt and is attempting to rebuild their lives:
