IDENTITY Oil Paintings and Watercolors
The "Remembering Dreamer and the Dream" series depicts Kurd's ethnic identity and other ethnic identities. Also to illustrate the unique issue of "immigrant identity crisis". To recognize or establish as being a particular person, I used bright colors and transparent watercolor and oil for fluidity. There is gravity and repression in their faces, yet I want my figures to be convincing and show their tenacity and resolve in their conviction. - Kurds are the indigenous and ethnic people of Iran (my ancestors from father side.) They also live in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Armenia. They make up the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, but they have never obtained a permanent nation. Kurds are mentioned on Sumerian clay-tablets dated to the 3rd millennium B.C. They have distinctive community, race, religion, culture and language. Also, let's not forget, the prominent role of the woman in governing and running affairs in the community. Seldom in history has there been such a deep, irrational, relentless and extreme hatred by a state against an ethnic group. The ethnic cleansing and deportation of Kurds by Turks (Turkey) is well documented. This level of brutality never employed in Iran, since the Kurds share much of their history with the rest of Iran. However, their struggle to obtain freedom and independence has lasted a century.