postcards for charity

mini mother of the house . 2024

mini dance distortion . 2024

on the 21st of march, capsule arts hosted 'postcards for compassion – charity art event', a post-iftar fundraiser for one night only at their headquarters, inviting 80+ artists to contribute original a5 sized art postcards, all priced at aed 100. full proceeds of sales would be donated to the emirates red crescent for the humanitarian aid in palestine. click here for more information about the event via capsule arts' web page.

i was happy to participate in the fundraiser with the two original artworks you see above, made with humble coloured ballpoint pens and fluorescent markers. i'm even happier to announce that both artworks were sold. i arrived early at the fundraiser with hopes of taking a few photographs of my works on display, but they were already gone. as annoyed as i was for not managing to get any photographs, i was delighted to find out that someone liked my works and purchased them. to whoever got my artworks – thank you and i hope my little postcards find happy homes! and may our small contributions help those that are currently in need.

ending this short post with a thank you to capsule arts for the invitation to participate. to more fundraisers in the near future...

mother of the house

mother of the house . 2024

 

printing 'mother of the house' at full special studio pop up, sikka art and design festival . 2024

it's the first day of spring and mother's day in the arab world. coincidently, i just received my risograph editions of 'mother of the house', a new print i worked on at full special studio's pop up at the recent sikka art and design festival. if you haven't seen my previous post about full special studio at sikka and the risograph prints i exhibited at their pop up space, please read here.

during sikka, i was asked to create a new risograph print during the duration of the fair. to complement my already exhibited series 'children of the house', i thought my new print would be aptly titled 'mother of the house'! in the world of voguing and ball culture, every house has a mother to their children – i'll leave it to you readers to do a little research to know more on your own! 

i love the quality of the marks from my pen drawings printed as multicoloured layers on a single page. one again, thank you full special studio for the invitation, guidance and support with being a part of their launch and printing my works. if you haven't yet, please follow full special studio right now!!!

ending this post with a happy mother's day to all the mothers out there. god bless...

ramadan kareem 2024

ramadan . 2024

it's that time of year again – ramadan kareem to those observing. may it be a blessed, holy month for us all. sending well wishes to anyone reading this, as well as your families and loved ones.

ramadan has been quite a challenging month for me in recent years. we do our best to observe the holy month, and some years are better than others. here's hoping this year is one of the better ones. remember to be charitable, grateful, mindful and thankful. and keep those that are less fortunate in your thoughts and prayers, especially with all the current tragedies happening around the world.

i'll keep this post short and sweet, and end with a big thank you to shamal holding for giving me the opportunity to work on the illustration above as their ramadan greetings for this year. i'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

children of the house

children of the house i . 2024

children of the house ii . 2024

children of the house iii . 2024

children of the house b/w (gif) . 2024

 

here's a series of new risograph prints i worked on with my dear friends diego and finn who've recently set up their risograph printing studio, full special studio! i'm so excited and proud of them because i've heard them brainstorm ideas of wanting to open a studio for awhile and they finally took the leap and launched at this year's sikka art and design festival. we finally have a risograph printing studio in town!

my prints are a continued exploration of my dancing silhouettes which i've only so far been producing as stamp prints. i took the opportunity to use the risograph machine to give my silhouettes a different dimension – printing the hand drawn pencil marks in colour, and play with values and overlays which is the beauty of riso prints! this is the first time i have multiple dancing figures across a page, so it was fun to build these scenes of dance poses and interactions. it's inspired by my love for house music, voguing and the participants i've encountered from this club culture that i've grown to love – i dedicate these prints to the children of the house...

i really love how the final prints turned out and i can't thank the full special studio duo for guiding me through the process to come up with the best outcomes. if you're not familiar with risograph printing, please do a little search and learn more about it. and more importantly, please follow full special studio and keep up to date with what they have to offer in the near future. support small, local businesses...

ending this post with a photo of my prints beautifully displayed at the full special studio pop up space at this year's sikka art and design festival. it's been 10 years since my last participation at sikka (see here), and i'm super happy to be back after all these years with full special studio. 

all photos courtesy of full special studio.

'children of the house' at full special studio pop up, sikka art and design festival . 2024