Taif Albarainkani

About Artist:

As human beings with growing emotions, we all go through life events and experiences that shape our souls. I am an Iraqi who is ambitious, passionate, and determined to create art. Art has been my best friend as my family and I traveled from country to country to find peace. Art became a way of living, a therapy, and through the years I realized that with art I open the eyes of people to the emotional curiosities of the world.

When I was 12 years old the Iraqi war occurred and it changed my life. During the war I only saw beauty and peace in my drawings, however, my beautiful surroundings were destroyed and appeared to be filled with sadness just like I was. After the war, my family and I moved to northern Iraq, Sulaymaniyah, then to turkey, then to Egypt, and then finally to the United States. Throughout the years, my art transformed from reflecting beautiful landscapes and nature to painting the human suffering that was caused by the painful and destructive wars. The transitions in these paintings reflected the transition in my personality. Art is the only place where I could express that pain I endured as a child of war. During that transition, I realized that I lost a country, a home, and a loving place to go back to.

Years later, however, I realized that the canvas is my country, home, and my loving place that I will always go back to. That experience has shaped who I am and who I want to be as an artist. This experience helped me reflect the agony of war with the glimpse of hope of a better world.

About Artwork:

My life events that I have experenced.