About the artist

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May Hamdan is a self-taught painter who has been developing her art over many years. She held her first exhibition in 2007 and has participated in collective shows since then. She has showcased her work at Zico House and Glaerie Plus ou Moins Dix in Beirut. Her work includes mixed media paintings of mostly acrylics and pastels. She enjoys building layers on her canvas, as though in a game of hide and seek of moods and appearances because she believes that there is always a story being told. Aside from her passion for painting, Dr. Hamdan is also a rising writer.

Dr. Hamdan lives in Beirut, where she has been teaching as a professor of mathematics at the Lebanese American University for nearly thirty years.  She has published scholarly works in Pure Mathematics as well as in Mathematics Education.
 

Artist’s Statement
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“Living is divided into time intervals where I wait for the layers of paint to dry just enough in order to apply the next coat of color strokes.

I would like to transfer all the paintings and compositions in my head and in my brushes onto canvas and fabric before my hands start trembling … I would love to see all color combinations before I lose my eyesight … I would be grateful if I could enjoy everything before my brain cells disintegrate and play tricks on me … I would like to do all this before I get asked about the order in which I want my art to be preserved … As a bonus, if it’s not too much to ask, I would like my figure in the mirror to resemble my figure in my head, to some extent, if possible.

Freshly dribbled liquids quickly find a way of oozing and blending with the undersurface; they instantaneously marry themselves to fluids of foreign media. They come out of the crust with a surprised look of awe, wonder and yearning for living. They look like they are reprimanding me for keeping them in sealed jars all along – happy to be liberated into the light.

I didn’t know that among the several paintings I was working on simultaneously, only one would survive, while the others would serve as its palette and would submissively sacrifice their souls on its altar. Mind you, I did not even know which one among the three would be the one! Later, the remnants of the other two would be patched into a quilted canvas and again announce the survival of the random other.

Mini thoughts that failed to make their way after trials and errors fell into a mysterious purgatory-like abyss … I found them years later, lovingly stitched into the inner lining of the pockets of small jackets, sewn with love from small squares of linen and silk, collected from all over the world or painted on the inner layer of some fantasy canvas.”