the liebster blog award
Posted on January 7, 2012 7 Comments
What a great way to spread the love! The Liebster Blog Award (‘favorite blog’ in German) is a token of appreciation awarded by bloggers to bloggers. It has been bestowed upon me, a little blogger (less than 200 followers-less than 50 in my case!) simply because a fellow blogger saw my blog and liked it. My Liebster was given to me by Mrs. Daffodil, the painting gardener. Check out her beautiful watercolors here. Thank you, Mrs D!
Now it’s my turn to pick my favorites. And my Liebster Blog Awards (the rules state that I pick five of my favorite blogs) go to:
The Still Searching Blog. A witty, slightly acerbic blog full of pithy commentary and opinion. Great for those with either little time or Attention Deficit Disorder.
Kuwait School. Experience the urban world through the eyes of Finnish academic Thomas Modeen. I enjoy looking at both design and non-design from his perspective.
Sketchbloom. Miti Aiello is a professor who lives in San Diego but is a citizen of the cultivated world. Visit her blog to read her poetry, see her photos and muse on her travel logs.
Unruly. This is where I go to be inspired. The unruly universe of Katy McDevitt.
Naked Carly Art. My kindred spirit in the form of Carly Swenson, a girl from Montana who lives on an island in Portugal.
I’d love to give out more but I guess I’m going to need to earn another Liebster for that to happen.
girls & apples
Posted on January 6, 2012 1 Comment
girls & apples, 2012, acrylic and oil pastels on canvas, 91cm x 152cm
new painting on january 5th
Posted on January 5, 2012 3 Comments
With great lackluster, I started this painting yesterday. Today, I found my mojo again and remembered that it’s all about enjoying myself. I’ve been so stressed out lately, imposing so many rules on myself whether they involve my behavior towards others, my parenting/daughtering skills, and my work. This morning, I tried my best to shove those rules out the window and found that it wasn’t as difficult as I’d thought. Read More
peculiar plant on the last page of this notebook
Posted on January 5, 2012 Leave a Comment
At the end of a book, what do you expect to find?
a bottle of piruzi school cafeteria
Posted on January 3, 2012 Leave a Comment
If you could bottle a scent, what would it be?
mom & her four daughters
Posted on January 3, 2012 5 Comments
mom & her four daughters, 2012, acrylic, collage and oil pastels on canvas, 135cm x 240cm
Done. I really enjoyed this painting because for the first time in a long time I felt like a child working on it. I didn’t think; I just painted, drew and scribbled. That sense of freedom is all I need right now, at a time when I feel trapped and slightly hopeless. Read More
the brand new & improved testament | happy new, but happy different?
Posted on January 1, 2012 6 Comments
I’ve been dying to use the new notebooks I ordered from Hope House Press. And I found just the utensil to write with as well: a fountain pen I bought from Florence a few years ago. Perfect.
my favorite eleven of this year
Posted on December 31, 2011 Leave a Comment
It’s the end of the year and I’m jumping on the top ten bandwagon with my list of top eleven favorite posts. These are the ones I tried to keep on the front page as long as possible, posts I was always reluctant to add a new post after. You’ll find that I’m cheating on some, selecting a whole category, but never mind. Happy new year everyone!
1 } Chair Trilogy. Thanks to my friend H’s assortment of chairs (and her generosity), I was inspired to create these four pieces. Oh, and I clearly have a huge disregard for quantification.
2 } PrettyGreenBullet | TheSecondExhibition Photos | Mohammed Alkandari. These are photos taken by my brother at my exhibition last December, held at Dar Al-Funoon Gallery. I cherish both the day and the photos.
3 } Polka-Madness on a Chilly December 5th Night. This was just fun. At least for me. Looking at the photos in bed after my PrettyGreenBullet show, I just laughed out loud. People can be so special.
4 } Book One | Body Parts. I wanted to include this on the list because it is important to me. I’ve been wanting to do these books for the past ten years I think. I’m so looking forward to the next one!
5 } Hour Drawing/Ramadan Drawing. I got so much gratification from these. For days I’d inhabit these worlds. A great escape an hour a day.
6 } PrettyGreenBullet Reader Interview | Bazaar Magazine. This was a fun interview because I had asked my PGB friends to ask me the questions. Thanks, guys!
7 } Crash. As horrendous as a car crash can be, there is some sad beauty in it. And a big fat lesson to be learned.
8 } Water, Wine & Women. My sister is game for anything. Thanks to my mom’s red sheets, my sister’s intrepid dip into the pool and Photoshop, I ended up with these shots.
9 } My New Love. Entertaining myself with my new A3 scanner. The possibilities are infinite.
10 } August Drawing. I love it when everyone decides to play! It really is rewarding and I would have been happy if this thing spilled into September, October, November…
11 } Stories of Eves Exhibition Photos | Mohammed Alkandari. What can I say, I love my brother’s take on my events. Having him there, among other dear ones, warms my heart. And seeing his photos afterwards just helps to preserve the moment. I really like his pictures.
making faces on a tuesday morning
Posted on December 27, 2011 5 Comments
I’ve always been interested in sculpture, but it is just so difficult! Which doesn’t prevent me from playing. So I made these two lovely heads this morning. Read More
tri-imperfecta
Posted on December 22, 2011 1 Comment
today, i'm glad there's just one of me
When I was younger (a lot younger, but old enough to know better), I secretly wished that I had not only one long lost twin sister, but two, making me a third of a triplet my parents couldn’t handle when my mom gave birth to me thirteen (see? old enough!) years before in New Delhi. New Delhi (where I was actually born) was important to my secret fantasy because there, my parents found the perfect opportunity to sell off the other two. Or they were baby-snatched. Or something. You can tell I watched my share of Bollywood movies where twins are separated at birth by an evil uncle, ultimately finding each other by sheer coincidence thirty years later because of matching tattoos. I believed so hard in this impossible dream. And I prayed for it too. Just two twin sisters, God. Just two. Today, I pray my daughter doesn’t turn out like her mother at thirteen.
So have you ever have a secret wish?
Raw Epistle
Posted on December 21, 2011 2 Comments
complete letter to tim pieraccini
I’m not sure how many of you know about my other blog, Raw Epistle, but the cogs and wheels are finally starting to roll. Three months into starting a blog about good old-fashioned letter writing, enough mail has been received on both sides to render me confident that this could actually work as a way of giving a long-distance ‘hello’. Who knew it would take as long as two months from a letter to get from Kuwait to its destination? It doesn’t matter because the reward of seeing letters in my mailbox is worth the wait. And the more correspondents I have, the less the wait. So I hope you join the experience because I have become addicted. Read More
proud to be? not yet.
Posted on December 19, 2011 2 Comments
i saw a guy in a huge hummer this morning, phone in one hand (against the law) and throwing garbage out his window with the other. a kuwaiti. how can i accept that he and i originate from the same country? the problem is, people like him are breeding like bunnies
I am a Kuwaiti. Am I proud to be a Kuwaiti? No. Before you take out your punching gloves, I want you to think hard about the term ‘proud to be’ and what it is to be proud of this country, my country. Now, do I love Kuwait? Yes. Passionately. And every day I fight for it. I fight by honking my horn when I increasingly see people rolling down the windows of their fancy cars to throw out a tissue or crumpled up cigarette box. I fight for my country by minding my garbage output. I fight for it by raising three decent (well, most of the time anyway) individuals who I hope will follow my lead as a Kuwaiti fighting for her country. But until the majority of the people of Kuwait start loving it the same manner I and many like me love it, I can’t bring myself to say that I’m proud to be Kuwaiti. But I sure as hell am trying to make it a place my children will be proud to say they are from. Read More
a visit to deema al-ghunaim’s studio
Posted on December 18, 2011 4 Comments
this is the cavernous arabana hall. i can just see this place bursting with artistic life and vision within the next year
Last night I paid a visit to my friend architect/photographer/designer (I can go on) Deema Al-Ghunaim’s studio space she’s rented at the Arabana warehouse in Shuwaikh. The space is still in its embryonic stages but to know this little gem exists amid the hustle and bustle of industrial Shuwaikh is soothing to the heart and mind. I’m very excited to share these photos with you. Thanks, Deema, for the invitation! Read More
prettygreenbullet 