Images from Cairo

My time in Cairo was highly significant in my development as an artist. I had left Canada and my formalist roots behind with the purpose of developing a body of work that would reflect a new a very different culture. In Cairo, I began a series of drawings, but I was unsatisfied after six months. The main reason was the work was only on the surface, and Cairo had begun to open up to me. Three things kept coming up in my mind. One, Cairo was the recycling capital of the world. Each neighborhood has a Ruba Bikya man, who rolls his cart though the area calling out "Ruba Bikya" or just "Bikya", which comes from Italian for "Old Clothes". He collects everything and anything that can be traded, fixed or re-used, which pointed to the process I used with these works. Second, even though Cairo is polluted and dirty, there are moments when the city glows with beautiful color and has a serene calmness. These times were rare, but greatly appreciated due to that rarity. From this I tried to capture the moment without losing the rawness. Third, the faces in the turbulence of the city kept sticking in my memory. There is a raw energy in the city that for a second will slow down to show you a scene or a cameo that has a poignancy showing humanity at its best, worst, and most real, then the moment is gone in the swirl. All of this was going through my mind as I recycled my works, collaging, drawing, and painting over top of the first body of work until I felt I had captured something of the essence of this complex and compelling city.