Language of Memory & Maps of the Imagination
Shelley Heffler and Diane Silver
at Yavapai College Art Gallery

The exhibit runs from July 15 through Aug. 12

Heffler and Silver from Christine Sutherland.

Carole Choucair Oueijan
Title: Turning Pages
Mixed Media: Mosaic, Watercolor, Parallam beam wood, mirrors and other materials.
Size: 60H x 84W x 24D inches

Statement:

Turning Pages
Carole Choucair Oueijan
Born in Lebanon 1966, immigrated to the United States 1989.

Fascinated by art installations I have been seeing in many museums and galleries lately, I was inspired to write my life story in mosaic and watercolors while looking back at images and photos since my childhood to the present.
I have been very busy the last 47 years; growing up, falling in love, getting married then raising a family of 3 kids. I didn't get the chance to sit back and flip the pages of my childhood albums until all my kids went to college.
I have more time for myself now! No more driving, volunteering or even cooking that much... This might have happened to you, so you might know exactly what I'm talking about.
Well, now that I got the chance to relive and cherish these tiny moments of my life, I wanted to share them with others, not through Facebook, but in the first installation I do, especially with people who had the same experience as mine: growing up in one country, trying to escape the war, and building a new life in another, on the other side of my world.
By choosing mosaic and watercolor mediums, I tried to express the smallest but most important moments that can sum up my life with its highs and lows. Little things that never seemed important until I lost my parents, like how my father used to pick me up on his shoulders or how my mother used to play with my hair as I sat in her lap. This installation is about these moments.
White, black, turquoise and ochre were used to describe our attachments to earth, how we were so desperate to leave either by sea or sky, our only hope, and all sad and happy moments we lived...
I hope this installation can help inspire you or take you back to the pages in your life, not just mine. Here's to many more pages to come!

Thank you to my son Nicolas for putting this movie together for me. I love you
Music by Assi Al Rahbani - Mishwar. I do not own or claim to own any of the rights to this music. I just appreciate it and found it very complimentary to this piece.

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