Life Wins … Standing Tall!
Date-palm Tree as the Symbols of Heroism!
Heroes don't always wear capes, badges, or uniforms. Most of the time, heroes are everyday normal people!
People may have heard of Che Guevara. Also, most of us have read about Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Spanish poet, Federico García Lorca. However, how many of you know about over one thousand young freedom fighters who paid the ultimate price defending freedom, democracy, and hoping for a better world?
Recently, in Iraq, during one of my humanitarian missions, I was watching the news during lunchtime at a dining facility not that far from the blood-shaded streets of Baghdad. I felt so helpless compared to the courageous kids and young men who were facing a rain of bullets and smoke grenade launchers with their bare chests and uncovered heads by one of the worst brutal sectarian regimes in the world. Without even thinking, my hand reached out to my ballpoint pen to draw my feelings on the cover of my foam take-out container. As a human being, I felt so helpless; but as an artist, I did what I am best at, painting the moment. Some thought the uprising would be over eventually, but the outcome art of the uprising is going to last for years to come. It is almost immortal.
The Logogramism art style played a big role in depicting that tragic and heroic scene artistically. I decided to use the date-palm tree, an ancient as well as modern Iraqi symbol of life, to be the main visual element of my artwork. I also decided to use the pictograph symbol of the date-palm tree to express my strong feelings on the available media at the moment (foam container).
In that date-palm uprising, those immortal heroes, mostly with baby faces, were in my eyes as brave as Gilgamesh[1], the legendary Mesopotamian hero, and as tall as the tallest Babylonian date-palm tree. Since then, I believe that heroes don't always wear capes!
Subject: The Date Palm Uprising
Technique: Ink on Foam-surface
Measurements: 7 x 9 Inches
Date: 2019
Price: Annie Salatyan’s Private Collection
[1] Gilgamesh was the first hero in ancient Mesopotamia and worldwide mythologies. He is the protagonist of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the first superhero who stood up to cosmic evil forces to help humanity.
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