“I’ve been painting, reading and researching a lot these days. In my paintings it was a blessing that we went through this because I kept on producing my work and as you can see the faces I’m painting are growing in numbers.

I had an operation last year that kept me home most of the time, so once we were faced with this challenging quarantine experience I was already prepared. I didn’t feel the difference. When you’re in the nature of my creative work like poetry, you need that isolation and confinement to be able to be with yourself and produce. When editing a feature film, you have to be isolated for quite some time, sometimes 4-5 months or more.

Earlier in the quarantine I ran out of my art materials so I had to wait until things became easier so I could go out and buy it. It was also difficult to produce anything or record any filmmaking footage because it was impossible to keep the research going or meet people. However I tried to finish the work online through the phone or zoom calls. “

“It seems as if life went on hold those past few weeks – for everyone. I am always straddling two cultures and identities, as a Lebanese/Palestinian and as an American. It feels as if the news is always dividing us as “them v/s us”, and now here we are a “we”: all in this together, in the same boat, with life at a standstill and reduced to the confinement of home. This virus is such an equalizer, making us all re-evaluate our shared humanity, our fragility, and our priorities.

Isolation and confinement offered me the gift of time at home with my family, and in the studio with my work. I had almost forgotten how precious both are. With time and space to re-evaluate what matters, I reached out to my friends and started visiting them and making their portraits through the window. A new project about “connecting across barriers” emerged. It humbled me how many people were willing to be part of this, but also how important the human interaction we often took for granted, is. Despite the fact that we only communicated across a physical barrier, we really and truly made a connection.

When life goes back to normal, I hope we keep that empathy, kindness, interconnectivity alive in us.”

“Quarantine shifted my practice. As an artist my main source of inspiration to create is by going out and exploring spaces. However, lockdown was difficult as it limited the exploration. I Decided to explore the house more and worked in a smaller parameter than what I am used to, my studio was the rooftop. I started slicing copper pieces myself to create platforms to experiment rusting copper with random household items such as coffee, pool water, sanitizer, adol, sand, hot sauce, and much more. These plates were studies of the process of rusting patina and the different vibrancies of blue. I never saw myself working small scale and so the plate multiplied and created an installation of itself. Each plate has its own formula however, the repetition was an experience that was more like a meditative process to release, balance the shift, accept the change and make. ”

“Here is what happened during my Covid isolation. Isolation began for me on Friday March 13 and thus today, Monday May 4, 2020, will be over 7 weeks of isolation.

My isolation started at a point when I had been running out of canvases to paint on. I like to work on three to five paintings at the same time. It seems to be the best way to tease intuitions to take over my aesthetic efforts. Thus my studio is now occupied by 5 unfinished canvases while I am measuring, cutting, stretching, and priming linen canvas.

Fortunately, a large roll of linen and new stretchers had just been delivered. Substantial progress was made on this task but something delayed its completion.

But soon, electronic events began to happen and I enjoyed them all. Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi’s (@sultanalqassemi) Online Majlis where he asked me to show how moved rom oil painting to electronic media was a turning point. Preparation for the Majlis and response to my electronic work sparked a return of interest in programming and so I began to go back to the old equipment that I used in the 80s and 90s and to examine if it is working and how I can transfer material to new computers. .

I am trying to proceed with optimism while taking note of the growing aesthetic pleasure of returning to programming digital art.”

“The first two months of the quarantine I was afraid to move out of my home, so for me it was a new and nice experience spending all this time with my wife and my children.

I also read a couple of books I have been trying to find the time to read. I didn't work much but made several sketches for new paintings. After two months I had the courage to go to my studio in Ramallah and visit friends, but I spent most of my time in my studio trying to work. I managed to do some work but not much because I couldn't concentrate, especially in expecting some bad news all the time and it's not easy to create in these conditions.”

يبدو لي العالم من هنا محدود الجدران لكنه واسع بكيفية التعامل مع الخيال الا منتهي

استطعت أن انقل العالم الكبير هنا عن طريق دمج الاحاسيس والصور التي تراكمت في الذاكرة النفس البشرية في كل لحظة من الزمن تتغير بتاثيرات مختلفة وهذا مالاحظته كثيرا في فترة الحجر المنزلي وقت ازمة كورونا في البداية كان الامر صعباً في التاقلم مع الوضع وكوني احب قضاء معظم وقتي في المرسم الا انني افتقدت الطبيعة والتي اعتبرها المصدر الاول في الالهام اشعر بالانتعاش والتجدد واكتساب طاقة مطلقة في كل ذرة من جسدي ، احيانا تحدث امور في حياتنا من الصعب ادراكها الا من خلال تواتر الاحداث وتقترب منا اكثر خصوصا اذا لامستنا وعشناها بشكل حقيقي وهذا ما حصل اثناء رسمي لوحة عن الجائحة رسمتها وانا ارمز الى صور تتواتر في ذاكرتي كانت سابقا من خلال شاشة التلفاز والان اصبحت اعيشها من خلال اصابة اقرباء وتجاوزهم للامر وشفائهم وتوفي ايضا اشخاص يعز علينا فقدهم من الصعب والمؤلم ان ارسم الحقيقة لكن من واجب الفنان توثيق و نقل رسالة تتجلى في عمل يخلده التاريخ

“It’s hard to say something in a moment like this..some people don’t have a house or food to sufficiently quarantine but I’m grateful for having a place to stay and continue working. I’m trying to do my part on the social distance.”

“The city as my studio has been a constant in my practice.

Of course, like everything else, this approach was put on hold during the pandemic.

The past few months have been blurry for me. It has been intense for all of us. I am still assimilating things on an individual and collective level.

In between all of this I did intermittently manage to further some research and work on a publishing project.

Recently I took a walk down Broadway to index non-perpendicular street corners. It’s common knowledge that Broadway was once a Native American path known as the Wickquasgeck trail.

That’s why Broadway does its own thing - meanders through Manhattan, diagonally at times, disrupting the infamous grid at odd angles.

Encountering these sharp corners is refreshing. As if life has gone a little askew.

Maybe these odd ones reminded me of growing up in chaotic Beirut and Bombay. “

“For us the calligraphers, the satisfaction comes from the discipline of calligraphy, the continuous practice and repetition of writing the same letter or verse over and over, the perfection and crafting of the letter form, that’s why I feel we the calligraphers will never bored.

I used the time of quarantine in practice and research, reaching for new forms and new body of work.”

“Isolation makes you reflect more of yourself, of your true self, see there is no one around to judge you there is no one near you to effect the way you project yourself, you're just simply you.

I guess the first time I saw another human was after 3 weeks when it first started, see I have 4 orphan cats that I've been taking care of at the shared studio I've been working at , I couldn't leave them so I had stay there alone, well not alone I made some new "friends".