MANAL DDEB

Manal Deeb, a Palestinian-American visual artist, paints recollections of her childhood home in Ramallah on her canvases. Her early life in Palestine saturates her work from every angle, giving it a beautifully distinct, melancholy quality. The Fairfax, Va., resident has lived stateside for decades, but her early life in Palestine saturates her work from every angle, giving it a beautifully distinct, melancholy quality. Manal Deeb, whose work incorporates a variety of mediums such as paint, collage, photography, calligraphy, and digital manipulation, claims she works with mental pictures from her youth. "You assume it's the same as it was when you left it," she explains. "My grandmother's house is no longer standing, but it exists in my thoughts." As a youngster, I used to love playing among the fig trees, and I even have a series called "Memories of Trees." To represent the Palestinian struggle, I frequently add tree bark into my artwork."

Arabic calligraphy, subdued earth tones to represent the land, and depictions of the female face (often her own) are other significant themes in Deeb's work. The face is typically the focal centre of the work, with colour and calligraphy accentuating it. "My self-portraits portray a strong, beautiful, Palestinian, Arab lady, and here she is, with all the sorrow in the world, with the entire battle," Deeb adds. “I think of my mom. I think of all the women and friends back home, and I think of women all over the world. Like my use of calligraphy and language, I find the female face very communicative.” Deeb's name is rising in the art world now, but she didn't always share her work with the public - she just started doing so approximately seven years ago, with the encouragement and support of her husband, Nedal. Art was more of a carefully guarded personal pastime for most of her adult life, and it functioned as an emotional outlet.

Deeb used the artistic process during the first intifada to work with the stress of watching the news and seeing her home in chaos, as well as the grief she felt from being so physically far away. Deeb travelled to the United States at the age of 18 to study studio art at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and then to Minnesota to finish her education. She then returned to Chicago, where she gave birth to two of her three kids. Deeb took a long break from painting after becoming a mother to focus on her family, but she has returned to it with zeal in the last five years. She also relocated to Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C., and chose to return to school, getting a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies with a specialisation in the psychology of art from George Mason University. "It fascinates me how the mind works," Deeb says, adding that "creating art allows you to peek inside your head and observe what's going on."

Her WORK

contact sheet

my idea was to have my model stand in front of a black background and take pictures of her using different color and patterned scarfs. my main focus for this shoot was to aim for the face and upper body which means my camera was directly at the models face and upper body but no other part of the body, a zoomed in shot of the model. I made my model not show any emotion and simply stand there so we can get a good eyeshot of her face. for this photoshoot I wrapped my models head with multiple colored scarfs and layered them to make different looks and styles.

process log

for my simple black and white developments the first thing I did was make my photograph black and white. then I enhanced the brightness and contrast a little bit. then I drew with the burn tool and made the backdrop darker.

black and white development

I developed these photos by first making them black and white then I added the contrast and brightness. I increased the brightness because when turning the images black and white its becomes too dark. I love how the images are similar with my photographers photos

raw images

I put these images in a gallery because they had expects that were not needed for developing. with these images I like the way in some of my photographs the lighting is on my models face and not on the rest of the images making the attention only on the models face and her expression. i loved the fact the images show every little detail there is to the image.

my successes

I think these were my most successful edits because of how they connect to my artists style

BLACK AND GOLD ARABIC WRITING

DEVELOPMENT
IMAGE BLENDING

BLACK AND WHITE IMAGE BLENDING

for these further developments I first turned them black and white. then I double exposed them with the Arabic calligraphy I painted before. I then double exposure the image again with a piece of paper that i painted gold earlier on in my portfolio.