Hatice

Posted on August 15, 2021January 17, 2022 by eric

“…truth can only be meaningful when it serves justice…” – Hatice Cengiz

The Crown Prince will not be punished, says the Biden administration.

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi left behind his fiancé Hatice Cengiz when he was murdered by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s hit team.

Our relationship w Saudi Arabia is too important, Biden claims.

The “prince” silenced one of his most vocal critics as Khashoggi’s fiancé waited outside the Saudi embassy for him to get the necessary paperwork for their marriage. She waited outside for 12 hours while they coagulated his blood to reduce the mess of his dismemberment. They held a massive bbq the night they cremated him in an underground oven to hide the smell.

After the Biden administration released a report that held the Crown Prince responsible and then Biden declared that he would not be sanctioned, Hatice Cengiz stated, “The truth – that was already known – has been revealed one more time, and is now confirmed. Yet this is not enough, since the truth can only be meaningful when it serves justice being achieved.”

Today, truth feels meaningless.

https://thedissident.com/

Watch the trailer here:

Einstein

Posted on August 11, 2021August 11, 2021 by eric

My first serious woodburn, creating this helped me recognize that woodburning slows me down – no space for worry or anxiety when concentrating so hard on something that comes about so slowly. I burned this piece for a devout Christian – I asked him to name for me someone he admires; I totally expected him to name a saint or some other biblical inspiration. Nope, Einstein, which further piqued my curiosity about where religion and science overlap. At the time of this piece, I was just diving into religious studies, and was (and still am) fascinated by Einstein’s agnostic views.

Collage on Wood

Posted on August 11, 2021September 2, 2021 by eric

Just studying what it is like to combine the grains of the wood w/ the different images and symbols jumping around in my mind. I usually take composition more seriously, but here I decided to go with the flow without thinking about the result. I included symbols of my wrecked arm, my travels to refugee camps in Greece, the connection between my heart and my mind, and some other playful wanderings (or wonderings?).

Women’s Studies

Posted on August 11, 2021 by eric

This lithograph during my college years represents my emerging understanding of the limits of being a woman in a world that values women and men differently.

Home Sign

Posted on August 11, 2021 by eric

Having been kicked out of a Syrian refugee camp on a tiny island of Lesvos by a crazy German Greek who abused his young female volunteers and didn’t appreciate me standing up for them, I found myself far from home and ready to work in the refugee camps – the project I planned for dissolved. Rewind to my budding relationship with Home for All, where we determined through Eric’s tech support that the only thing standing in the way between TripAdvisor and them was a picture of their business with a sign in front. I called a volunteer from Home and told him about getting dragged out of the camp for causing too much of a scene (same ol’, same ol’) and feeling beaten down and useless, and he replied simply, “Just come Home.” I responded that first I would paint them a sign so they could finish their TripAdvisor profile. And, since then, a video with the sign went viral, and has been seen by millions – my most famous work yet!

Beast

Posted on August 11, 2021 by eric

I don’t want to remember Jamal Khashoggi this way, a giant brown recluse electricuting his innocent face, a Saudi Arabian sword at his neck, but it was all I saw for months after his murder. It symbolized everything the Trump administration stood for – corruption at the highest level for financial gain, retaliation, and satisfaction of ego. It demonstrated that allies of the United States know they can get away with murder because Trump’s international leadership has no moral backbone. His murder was ordered and carried out because accountability at the highest levels of office is nonexistent. Leaders can go rogue with impunity and they know it.

Our government responded to his murder by agreeing to stay in a financial relationship with Saudi Arabia, whose leader ordered the murder. Turkey, where the murder took place, criticizes our silence, but they are known for the systematic use torture and imprisonment of people who speak against the government. Their hands are dirty too. This portrait holds all three countries responsible. The red stripes reference the flag of the United States, as does the star, positioned in relationship to the moon from the Turkish flag. The sword comes from the Saudi Arabian flag. As for the brown recluse – the most deadly and feared spider in all three countries. Along the bottom is Khashoggi’s last editorial, printed post-mortum. His editor Karen Attiah notes, “his column perfectly captures his commitment and passion for freedom in the Arab world. A freedom he apparently gave his life for.”

In a private email, Khashoggi called the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia a beast. He couldn’t have been more right – but Khashoggi underestimated the reach of the Crown Prince. Hiring an entire hit team including a body double who walked out of the Saudi consulate pretending to be Khashoggi, the Crown Prince is responsible for silencing one of his most vocal critics – via death by dismemberment, with a bone saw, chemicals to coagulate his blood to reduce the mess, and loud music to make the process more bearable for the witnesses. His body has yet to be recovered – one theory is that it was burned in an underground oven while the Prince held a massage bbq on the property to disguise the smell.

Buried deep in the etymology of the words beast and corruption, I bet there is some overlap.

For sure only a beast could do this, but it’s corruption that killed Khashoggi, corruption approved of by the leaders of my own country, among others.

Beasts. All of them.