Once Again -- Green Line

16" x 100" (61cm x 255cm)  oil on board (for the most part)

Green Line - panel 5

Panel 5 presents the barbed wire unravelling. Unrealistic, perhaps, but more worth working towards than the alternative.

Green Line - panel 4

Panel 4 looks for some redemption: ladders help to overcome a chain-link fence.

Green Line - panel 3

Panel 3 presents the worst situation I can think of: that I am separated from my children. My house is above the no-man's land green line, my children's houses are below it.  

Green Line - panel 2

Panel 2 applies a green line divide in my neighbourhood, dividing my house from half my neighbours and from the local grocery store and other businesses. It was more than eery to create. 

Green Line - panel 1

Panel 1 is a close-up of a green line, so close it is pixelated. What is within a line? Is it, in an of itself, something? 

Green Line

The 1949 armistice boundary between Israel and the West Bank was drawn on a map in green ink. Cyril Radcliffe, a British official, thus created the first "green line", which also became the internationally accepted border. The second "green line" cuts across Cyprus. cleaving its major city in half. In that case, another British official made another green line. That time the line was drawn with a green pencil, but no less difficult to erase than ink. What is neat and clean on a map is messy and heart-rending for families and communities. 

The panels of the Green Line paintings focus on the arbitrariness of these kinds of divisions. Nothing about arbitrary action sits well with people, especially if they have been harmed with no redress.

This is the finished piece. It is 16" x 100" (41cm x 255cm) oil on board.

  

In subsequent posts I will present the panels individually, along with some process.

Shared Sky, Divided Land

3" x 30"   7.5cm x 76cm

3" x 30"   7.5cm x 76cm

detail

Sign of spring 2014 #4

Sign of spring 2014 #3

Sign of spring 2014 #2

Sign of spring 2014 #1

"Say no winter, and yes for summer."