Postcards from Palestine

Postcards from Palestine Series 2006-2007

While working for the International Solidarity Movement, I spent my days on the streets of Hebron doing checkpoint monitoring, escourting Palestinian kids to school, and video taping and intervening in cases of settler and soldier violence against Palestinians. The Postcards From Palestine series was painted late at night, sitting on the floor of the squalid ISM apartment, under dim flourescent lights, after I had finished writing the incident reports of the day.

I first started painting people and situations I witness in Palestine as a way to cope with the trauma and stress of daily life. Some people smoked, others drank, I drew and painted compulsively. Some have been lost, others sold so there are prints in their place.

The illustration is the front of the postcard and the accompanying text on the back are letters addressed to the American people. It was my version of “the weather is nice, wish you were here,” except it wasn’t nice at all; it was very violent and disturbing.