I wait for the light. Everything is beautiful, but only in my room, not in Gaza. I’m ready to die in this room unless I find a better place. – Gaza Artist, Nidaa Badwan, of her more than 100 Days of Solitude painting gorgeous self portraits in her 100 square foot room.
February 28, 2015 at 5:04 pm
Wonderful image and article, thanks for posting.
February 28, 2015 at 5:36 pm
cobalt please it’s a lovely story and reminds me of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own…in which to write, paint, compose, sculpt…create. Perhaps the smaller the better? The imagination, after all, has no size limit, does it?
March 1, 2015 at 5:13 am
Thank you ever so much for bringing this wonderful, horrible article to my attention, Giselle Minoli.
How horrible that a woman is forced by her surroundings to retreat from the world in such a manner! As opposed to Virginia Woolf, who wrote about her desires, Ms Badewan has retreated not so much by choice as by necessity.
All the more amazing that she has kept and found a way to express such a wonderful sense of beauty.
Her spirit is to be admired.
March 1, 2015 at 7:15 am
I wonder about Virginia’s choice.
March 1, 2015 at 4:12 pm
I know what you mean Susanne Ramharter. I see it as the triumph of her spirit over insanity. So much art, poetry, music…so many creative efforts come from stories of hardship though so I wouldn’t be surprised if this is more common than we think. Here in New York stories often crop up about artists who live in tiny spaces making exquisite art many of them struggling with illness, poverty, personal tragedy. Human beings can be remarkable resilient…and poetic…under the most dire of circumstances…
March 2, 2015 at 12:59 am
Indeed, Giselle Minoli. That was my thought, or rather hope as well. But, unlike you, I have no artistic talents and was afraid such ideas would sound condescending.
May both your lights keep shining!
March 2, 2015 at 1:53 am
A few stories I thought you might like Susanne Ramharter:
A Mystery Woman’s Eye on the World:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/movies/a-documentary-looks-at-the-photographer-vivian-maier.html
Lonnie Holley, the Insider’s Outsider:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/magazine/lonnie-holley-the-insiders-outsider.html
As Debts Piles Up, An Artist and His Work Face Eviction in Paris:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/18/world/as-debts-pile-up-an-artist-and-his-work-face-eviction-in-paris.html