Portraits 2000 – Ongoing Projects – ZAHIDAH ZEYTOUN MILLIE

The Portrait Video

The Portrait acrylic, mixed media, 2018

The Portrait acrylic, wooden box, mixed media, 2018

The Professor height 50cm, base 58cm, acrylic colour, 2016

The Self Acrylic, oil colour, 50 x 50cm, 2010

Palestine 1 acrylic on canvas, 25x40cm, 2000

Jeblah acrylic, 50x25cm, 2001

Palestine 2 Charcoal on paper 75 x 50cm, 2000

Bedouin Woman, Palmyra acrylic, 50x60cm, 2000

The Self acrylic, resin chopped tree, mask (my face and hands) heavy knife used to chop trees, wire, wood, plaster, leaves, cardboard, inner shoe, 2017.

The Self acrylic, resin chopped tree, mask (my face and hands) heavy knife used to chop trees, wire, wood, plaster, leaves, cardboard, inner shoe, 2017.

The Self acrylic, resin chopped tree, mask (my face and hands) heavy knife used to chop trees, wire, wood, plaster, leaves, cardboard, inner shoe, 2017

The Self, detail acrylic, resin chopped tree, mask (my face and hands) heavy knife used to chop trees, wire, wood, plaster, leaves, cardboard, inner shoe, 2017.

Daniel 1 acrylic colours, 2000

The Self during the Mangroves Festival, 2017 acrylic, resin chopped tree, mask (my face and hands) heavy knife used to chop trees, wire, wood, plaster, leaves, cardboard, inner shoe, 2017

Daniel 2 acrylic colours, 2000

The Self

This art work talks about my thoughts and feelings toward the daily destruction of the mangroves, which I witnessed daily while going kayaking or running in Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah. I had a period of time when I felt I was one of those mangroves trees especially when I painted or sketched them. I spent a long time with the mangroves and I feel I know them very well! I felt their pain too!

I faced waves of difficulty while working to protect the mangroves, and yet so much support, too.

For this art work I borrowed the myth of Daphne turning into a laurel tree! There is a certain satisfaction and a beauty, I feel, of becoming a tree! I wish I could be a tree!

The Self is located at the Sharjah American International School in Umm Al Quwain to be on display for one year, 2017-2018.

The Self

The Self is a portrait of an important influencing person in my life: Nawal Al Saadawi. I called the painting The self, asn in a bigger self, not a small identity forced on me by society, culture, religion or the media. Saadawi goes beyond the limits of what defines her as a woman and encourages others to share her commitment to creat a fairer and more equal society. Saadawi continues the struggle for ‘liberation’, ‘love’ and ‘equality’ and thats why I included these values in English and Arabic on Saadawi’s shoulder.