• De ma série ‘Femme au-dessus, Femme au-dessous’
• From the series: Women, on Top
• Inspired by Romaine Brooks

Paint, canvas, and paintbrushes are the tools that enable me to participate in non-violent resistance.

Through painting, I confront the increasingly patriarchal, conservative and environmentally irresponsible systems imposed on us, whether in Beirut or New York. 

Since my first solo show, I Dreamt of a City where Roofs are made of Grass and Sheep are just Clouds, at Artlab – Beirut in 2013, I went from exploring the identity of Beirut and defending its heritage to, in my second show They’ve hidden the Sea from Me at Aïda Cherfan Fine Art in 2015, focusing on defending Lebanon’s coastline from the barbaric invasion of ultramodern spiritless towers.  

The City Screams, my 3^rdsolo show at Aïda Cherfan Fine Art (2017), communicated almost exclusively environmental concerns. This series of paintings was born out of the garbage crisis that occurred in Lebanon and is still not entirely resolved.

A Melody of Blue (Artlab, 2019) allowed me to move in inurbane ways, combining my passion for music, I am also a DJ, along with my love for writing and urge to paint. 

Colors are of a primordial importance to my work because not only do they reflect both the natural and industrialized world but they are, more importantly, a path leading to a higher dimension, whether spiritually or intellectually. 

I paint frantically; it is my way of injecting a small, perhaps insignificant dose of poetry into the blue – poetry, a stripping down of things to their essence, a greatly needed force to pull the world back towards a more elevated state. 

In my last exhibition, I introduced human figures, specifically of the singers/musicians – mostly women – behind the music. And through my recent drawings, I was able to verify the direction my hand was moving towards. 

Tentatively titled ‘Women, on Top’, my next series aims, so far, at reintegrating valor, liberty, elegance, grandeur and eroticism to the historically opposite portrayals of women. 

It began with a drawing entitled ‘Lady Gulliver’ and I’ve just finished ‘Salomé’. I take time to reflect and reconstruct after each show before setting a new trajectory. I am now back in my creative bubble… 

Vanessa

September, Bikfaya.

… the first in my new series tentatively titled ‘Women, on Top’. /

…  la 1ere dans ma nouvelle série ‘Femmes au-dessus, femmes au-dessous’

Clin d’oeil à l’oeuvre de Matisse qui lit “Elle vit apparaitre le matin. Elle se tut discrètement”. 

And the sun is stealthily creeping-up from behind the mountains to the right.

I wake-up when it’s pitch black.

It’s blacker than black, a carbon sort of black.

A black alleviated here and there by faded lemony yellowish electric lights.

I wake-up when it’s pitch black,

My senses tempered by the absence of light,

My eyes conjecturing the contours of my surroundings.

There is something comforting by this void,

Something interiorized that merges with the outside

And patiently waits.

As time moves slowly, the blackness lingers,

Whispering a tender lullaby

To the endless shades of shadows dancing in the corners of my eyes.

I see. All of a sudden, I raise my head and I see… a blue.

It’s a dark almost black blue but it stands tall nonetheless in its blueness.

It transpires, all encompassing, conquering valiantly the darkest shades of dusk.

The blue rapidly turns into blues,

United, they creep over the land

And spread to the sky,

The sparkle of a star slowly shimmers out.

Vanessa

Bikfaya – Wednesday, September 4^th 2019

Acrylic on canvas, 2019

Avant d’être artiste…

Une mélodie dans mon bleu, c’est un texte et de la peinture, mon coeur ouvert qui chante enfin, une vieille chanson qui m’a longtemps hantée. 
En attendant l’expo, je partagerai ici (et là https://www.facebook.com/events/345402329665594/?active_tab=about ) des morceaux que j’aime qui ne seront pas dans l’expo mais tournent autour du même thème.

Jbeil

Acrylic on canvas, 50x40cm, 2008

Catch a preview of my new paintings based on songs at the BAF tonight!  

* Below a detail of La Foule, Edith Piaf – Acrylique sur toile, 100x120cm, 2018

 

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