As an artist, I wanted to produce a collection of memories from Egypt as seen through my eyes as a child.
Art had always been a part of my life, but I had never felt at home until I was raised in Egypt. This semester, I want to represent my culture via oil painting and pencil to exhibit movement, color, and a sense of what it's like to be in such a wonderful nation as Egypt, which has been my genuine inspiration for my work and interests. When it comes to sketching or painting, I want to demonstrate color contrast and the value of lines. When it comes to shading, I like to use my finger to create a tone of two or more colors. To produce the level of detail I want while painting landscapes or certain pieces, I employ hatching and cross hatching. This series of oil paintings was extremely difficult to recreate from an eight-year-old memory. It took me a long time to squeeze my brain and thoughts to remember these memories because I only went back to Egypt once for vacation, but as I began each piece, the memories would bring flashbacks and more memories that connected each other. The oil paintings took me a long time since a lot of the detail had to wait for the backgrounds to dry. This may often take over a week, making it difficult to return to the painting and recall precisely where I left off to continue.