Angel, oil on canvas w. newsprint and collaged with the text of Al-Areer’s poem “If I Must Die” in
Arabic, Hebrew and English, 7.5 ft x 5 ft.
The painting “Angel” was created in response to a poem by the Palestinian poet and professor Refaat al-Areer who was killed in Gaza on December 6, 2023 in an Israeli airstrike. Al-Areer’s killing represents not only the unnecessary death of a courageous individual, it has become emblematic of the outrage and grief at a genocide which has killed at least 60,000 people, half of them women and children. This crime against humanity now includes the deliberate starvation of children by the Israeli government. This is taking place openly with the support of both the US and European imperialist governments with no clear end in sight after nearly two years.
Like Al-Areer’s poem, I intend the painting to build hope and to offer a forum for people to construct the way forward that goes beyond the protests which in spite of growing in size and numbers have proven incapable of stopping this historic, barbaric crime.
The painting received a strong response when shown at Newburgh Open Studios in September 2024 and in 2025, where viewers added to the collage. I am looking for additional venues for interactive showings. If you have or know of an opportunity to do so, contact me!
Additional paintings reflect the traumatic impact of the genocide especially on Palestinian children.
Here is Al-Areer’s poem:
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my thingsto buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze-
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
if I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale