Waynak Poster

Waynak / 50x70 cm / Limited Edition Screen-print / Available for sale through Fiballouta

My angel

Yes you... who else could it be Mother?

--

With me she became mother, in her womb I grew for 9 months and I'm still growing ever since with her support, love, encouragement, blessing and understanding for 29 years now.

Since my early childhood I remember her smiling face and her comforting presence. Never did she lessen of her tenderness, love, care and protection throughout the years even with us being 3 brats and me being the eldest.

She learned to be a real "Boys-Mother" (إمّ الصبيان) the hard way with every passing day and this began when she married my father who helped her become more confident of herself, more focused and just a tiny bit tougher than the "city-girl" she once was.

Her sensitive soul is reflected in the smallest chores she does, not to mention her artistry with words making her a unique poet and her innate talent of making food literally "happen" out of pretty much nothing and in just minutes when she already had a long day at work!

I remember the times of war which were -strangely- happy times to me and my brother Mirab. They were so because of mum and dad's continuous daily survival to keep us out of any material/emotional insufficiency thus preserving a pure aspect to our troubled childhood.
I remember summer time when we used to go out to play in the neighboring "forest" starting 7 am and her voice calling us to come to lunch then her voice in another tone calling us to come home at 8pm "...OR ELSE!"
I remember her eagerness to buy us new clothes for traditional holidays and occasions, clothes that were, for the biggest part of my childhood, too bright and happy to me or my brothers' liking.

I think about her sacrifices as a young educated & willing woman who put her dreams on hold for a while to make sure her kids were growing into the men she wants them to be before she resumes where she stopped, goes to a graduate school for 5 years, learns how to use a mac computer and an advanced layout program, gets her doctorate heavy with literature and Art and gets it published then starts teaching at two universities. All this knowing that she takes good care of her household, her family and her friends with joy and affection.

I like it when my brothers and I tease her just to see how she will spontaneously react.

Her comforting words and care are always soothing even when I don't want to admit my weakness and need for her support.
I feel her presence through her continuous prayers for me whenever I leave home where I try and do my best to make her among others proud of me.

I wish you good health and joy, you're my angel on this earth mother and I love you.

Bonum facere, sentit se bonum

Where on earth are we heading?
How is it that the wicked rule our world and make things their way?
I have a strong faith -other than my personal religious beliefs- in goodness, but there are days when the gloom takes over my head and confines me in a little box of helplessness.
Recently, I'm fighting this in order to make things happen.
What's the worst that could happen when I'm armed with goodness?
This tee says it best:

Do your own thing...
Do good, it feels good.
Now drink water... while it lasts.

Inertia or Life?

I find that there's a special lyricism to inert objects, one that is becoming harder to find in people.

The bleached wall of a hundred-year-old house, overlooking a lush garden revealing a rusting tin can half-sunken in a pile of decaying leaves under a massive oak tree in which sits a creaking tree-house held by nails that have become part of the tree's sap.

A pipe that sits at 4m in the air in front of an old house and that was once linked to a bathroom that now vanished.

That car from the 50's that doesn't belong to anyone and has become part of the scenery while also being home to small rodents and birds.

A tire sitting on the edge of a beach in which small plants have grown protected by the alien form.
The list is so long...

What has become of people who lost uniqueness, who transformed into cheap reproductions wearing the same clothes, eating the same food, conforming to the same trends, who became sheep of the same herd?

Is it sad that sometimes I find peace looking at inert objects/organisms and imagining what they may have "witnessed"?

Fakery suffocates me, it's everywhere.

Fight fakery,
be your true self,
appreciate inertia around you
& drink water while it lasts.

Selected photos - © Samah El Hakim - 2005

You Cannot

 "Niaak" |  © Samah El Hakim 2011

You cannot remain indifferent & be irresponsible facing all the atrocities that happen in our world daily:

1. You cannot throw half of your 20$-worth-platter when millions are starving and specifically someone in your neighborhood.
2. You cannot throw a can/paper/trash bag and leave it on the ground because you are in a hurry and missed the trash bin.
3. You cannot open the water tap for 5mns while brushing your teeth while millions have no access to drinking water / or have no teeth left for that matter.
4. You cannot buy more than you need, spend more than you earn or throw more than you give.
5. You cannot retreat to your safety bubble and think it will last forever, because it surely won't my friend.

I say "cannot" knowing that we are doing all of the above and more.
I surely am a long way from being the illuminated & the ultimate savior of the planet, I just write, am conscious of what is happening around me on all sides and feel responsible while trying to act no matter how insignificant any action I do might seem relatively to the vastness of the world.

What if, just imagine with me, every one of us does insignificant actions on a daily basis?
I say it will all build-up into something significant following this simple example:

(1 insignificant 10 kg monthly plastic collection

 + taken to the recycling plant)
x
100 households (as insignificant as my action)
=
1000Kg of plastic waste going to recycling

-------

It doesn't cost to be involved, to engage, to act, to live, to feel the wind on your face and the people around you, to have compassion, to be responsible and to be conscious.

It would be sad to have another species write one day: "... and due to their indifference and lack of responsibility, the humans got extinct."

The Earth is ours, the solution is us and the worse is yet to come.

Drink water... while it lasts.

A Thought About Pain

No matter how short our lives can be, pain is always there.

It's not a negative-vibe-post I am trying to conceive here, it's a projection of what's inside my head right now: an infuriating pain of knowing that I am most of the time helpless facing all the pain I see around, whether it inflicts me or not.

There's the physical pain, the moral pain, the psychological pain, the plain pain, the sexy pain, the made-up pain, etc...

You think the ultimate pain is hitting your left thumb with a hammer only to discover that breaking it is much more painful.

You think breaking-up with "the one" is painful only to find that losing a loved one in a silly accident a million times harder.

Then you think that witnessing the death of millions of people for food shortage is painful and makes you feel helpless, until you know that thousands of tons of food are being destroyed in order to maintain a proper market price...

-------

It's been a while now I've been observing people around me:
we've become a self-centered-ego-maniac-driven humanity.

What Hesperides said might be true:
"No pains, no gains.
If little labor, little are our gains:
Man's fortunes are according to his pains."

However, my dear Hesperides, if you were living in our world today, I can only imagine what you might have said about gain & pain...

What future awaits us, I do not know, what I know is that the worst pain is inflicted by humans -to any other living creature- when they lose their humanity, no matter how insignificant they think the act/word/thought/idea is.

Drink water.

"Rage" |  © Samah El Hakim 2011

An Advice

"An Advice"
© Samah El Hakim 2011
Please feel free to download & share.

Mother Earth

Last Saturday I planted a tree.
A pine tree it was, around 12 years old.
As I was preparing the piece where it would be planted,
I felt a strong connection with Mother Earth.

This small act of 20 minutes while thinking about how this tree would grow in its new place and finally "breathe", when it's been imprisoned for 12 years in a small flowerpot, gave me so much satisfaction.

Once finished, images of destruction came to my mind.

-------

Nature is a beast sometimes, it's true,
but Man is even more savage:

How easy it is to cut down an 80-year-old tree
"because its falling leaves are littering our backyard".

How simple it is to raid a forest using a bulldozer
"to clear the view".

How fast we can pollute a nearby river
"to keep our house/factory clean".

How can we ever regain what we destroyed?
We can't...

All the beautiful mountains that we transformed into ugly buildings.
All the water that we polluted.
All the forests "evaporated".
All the extinct species.
Then...
All of us.


This is far from being an alarm, it's more of a cry
during my "semi-mourning" for our dear Mother Earth.

We are slowly dying with Her.
For any possible resurrection, believing is not enough.
Start acting.

"Forgive Us"
© Samah El Hakim 2011
Please feel free to download & share.

Goodness On The Spot

I was coming back home the other day by car.

On one of bridges that I took, stood an old man with some bags, waving to the passerby, wishing someone would give him a lift.

He seemed really helpless.

Although I saw him from afar,

it took me 3 seconds to realize that I wanted to give him a lift,

but it was too late, since I was in the fast lane.

I decided to make a u-turn and pick him up.

While doing this action (that took nearly 30 seconds),

I thought of how I might have missed my chance in doing a good deed

and that I will arrive only to see that the man disappeared.

I wasn't wrong.

I arrived just in time to see another guy picking the old man up.

It felt as if we were racing for doing the good deed, it made me smile.

-------
Never think a good action twice.

If you feel it, do it on the spot or else you will lose your chance.

إلك يا بيّي

فيّي قول إنّو حظّي حلو خلقت من/ولأهل فنّانين وحسّاسين، مع إنّو العيشة بس يربى الواحد بهيك بيئة بتصير أصعب مع بقيّة الناس بحكم إختلاف النظر للأشياء،
صغيرة كانت أو كبيرة وللحياة كلّها بشكل عام. الليلة في أشخاص حكيو عن مارون الفنان، أنا بدّي إحكيلكن شوّي عن مارون بيّي.

بلّش بيّي  يحبّبني بالتأليف واللّون والشكل قبل ما إخلق، بيقلّي كان يحلم فيّي كيف رح كون وبما إنّي كنت الأوّل،
غنّجني يمكن زيادة عن اللّزوم واليوم، وقت يلّي سماجتي وتقل دمّي بيزيدو بيقلّي: "الحقّ عليّي خلّفتك!".

بتذكّر كيف من زغرتي دايماً الألوان موجودة، باللوحات، بالتماثيل، عالحيطان، بفضل إيدينا إخواتي وأنا أكيد، وبتذكّر كمان البابا بعدّة حالات عم يشتغل:
بالصالون قدّام الشومينيه عم يرسم مناظر كلّا نور وفرح وحلم بالرغم من تلبّد الغيوم بسما لبناننا على مرّ السنين،
أو عم ينحت بأوّل الربيع بالخشب أو الحجر ومبسوط قدّ الدني،
أو عم بحضّر لشي مشروع كبير بيبدا من رسمة ليصير مجسّم لآخر شي يصير تمثال ما بدّو إلّا يحكي.

أكتر شي كان وبعدو بعجّبني عندك يا بيّي هوّي كيف بتنفح حياة بهالشقفة الصخر أو الخشب،
بعلمكن بتكون ملقوحة بهالأرض لكن من بعد فترة بتصير قطعة فنيّة مميّزة عن كلّ شي بهالدني.

بفوق لمّا كنت إنزل لعندك وصير إلعب بهالغبرة المجمّعة على الأرض أو آخد المطرقة والزميل
وصير أعمل حالي إنّي عم بنحت، ولو شو كانو تقال...

بفوق كمان على الكزدورة اللّي كنت تاخدنا نعملها بالمزدا بالشتي.
ياي شو تكون حلوة هالكزدورة اللّي نروح نشقّ فيها على عمتو ماري
أو حدا من القرايب مع إنّو إنت تكون مشتوي من التعب.

"الله يرضى عليك ما إلي جلادة العالم وتقل دمّن وسخافتن...
تركوني بهالأتولييه أنا مبسوط وإنتو شو بدّكن عملو، ما هودي كلّن إلكن..."
هالجملة صرت إسمعها أكتر وأكتر أنا وعم بكبر وشوف إدّيش تعذّبت وضحيت لتوصل ليلّي إنت اليوم،
وصرت إفهم أكتر إدّيش التعامل مع الناس صعب ومتعب. صرت إفهم كيف "هودي كلّن إلنا"
وهلّق بعد ما عطيتني شرف كون "مدير أعمالك" بلّشت إشتغل لوصّل شغلك المتنوّع والمتجدّد والغزير لكلّ العالم،
مش لأنّك بيّي بل لأنّ هيك أعمال حرام ما تطلع عالنور وتوصل لأكبر عدد من الجمهور اللّبناني أوّلاً والعالمي في ما بعد.

بشكرك على كلّ هاللّيالي اللّي غمرتني فيا وتمشي فيّي بالبيت تنام.
بشكرك على "العنزوقة" اللّي نصبتلّي ياها بالأوضة لإغفى أحسن.
بشكرك عالقلام اللّي عطيتني ياها وتركتني إنزع فيها حيطان البيت.
بشكرك على حفلات الأعياد اللّي كانت أشبه بكرنفالات على الرغم من الحرب والضيقة.
بشكرك على كلّ الصّبر اللّي كان عندك نحنا وعم نكبر.
بشكرك على كلّ الفلومة والصور اللّي مصوّرنا ياها شو ما كنّا نعمل.
بشكرك على النّكات اللّي دايماً بتبلّش من آخرها وبتكون جديدة و"أوّل مرّة بسمعها".
بشكرك لأنّك كنت تخلّيني إسقي الجنينة وما زعلت منّي لما كبرت وما عاد إلي جلادة إسقيها.
بشكرك على خوفك علينا اللّي لو أوقات بيزعجنا بعرف إنّو بيجي تلقائيّاً مع حجم الحبّ اللّي بتحملو إلنا.
بشكرك على صحن الفواكه اللّي بيحضر فجأة وقت كون بالبيت وغاطس بالشغل.
وآخر شي بدّي إشكرك يا بيّي على حنيّتك وحبّك اللّي هلّق صرت شوفن، إفهمن وقدّرهن أكتر.

انشالله بيجي نهار بصير متلك بيّ مثالي وبتصير إنت جدّو مثالي أكتر: بينزعلي ولادي،
لأنّو متل ما بتقول: "انتزعو بالبيت لتكونو أوادم ومهذبين برّات البيت."
شكلها ظبتت معك يا بابا، بحبّك.