Hilm al Fatih

Oil on Canvas, 36x48, 2021

On a family trip to Istanbul, the closest we could get to home for a long time, we wandered into the Syrian district in Fatih. If I closed my eyes, it sounded like home. It smelled like home. Upon return a year later, perhaps because of a familial lack of direction ability, it was nowhere to be found. It remained in my memory like a land of fantasy, with comforting brightness of sounds and air. This expressionist painting is a representation of that memory, once more removed from reality, free to roam in fantasy.