Exhibition
9 April – 7 May 2010
Drawings from Palestine
paintings by
Ellen O’Grady
“The drawings of What Ham Saw reference my trip to
Palestine and Israel in April of 2008. I returned to the Middle East
with the goal of creating an illustrated book in which the stories of
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict were told by Palestinians, Israelis,
and Internationals who are living and responding to it. Each of those I
talked with — including a poet, teacher, student, peacemaker and
soldier — offered a thoughtful perspective on the conflict, and each
have at least one thing in common: a creative response to their intense
desire to see an end to occupation.”
“The stories of What Ham Saw go beyond simple sound bytes to
explore the root causes of the conflict. Far from taking sides, the book
will offer real stories that convey the belief that a pro-peace voice
is both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli, because it advocates for
lasting security and justice for both peoples.”- EOG
Ellen O’Grady is an artist and social justice activist in Durham, North Carolina. She majored in Theology in college and spent six years living in Palestine and Israel. Ellen has returned several times since to work with a variety of grassroots activist groups. Her work has been shown in galleries and museums throughout the state and country. Much of her work draws from her time in Palestine and Israel and reflects on the present conflict revealing the human faces behind the ongoing tragedy. She exhibited paintings from her book Outside The Ark: An Artist’s Journey in Occupied Palestine at The Jerusalem Fund Gallery in 2006.
