FEAR,  O/C, 30 X 30", 2019

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Statement/Musing:

 

I was particularly shaken and personally distressed by the Khashoggi debacle.  As I read and watched the “official” story being told through the media, simultaneously created my own narrative of the events. 

 

       On October 2, 2018, it was a beautiful clear day in Istanbul, Turkey.  A Saudi couple very much in love, engaged to get married, held hands as they excitedly walked towards the Saudi Arabian consulate to pickup some official papers that were necessary for them to get married.  They were talking about things like what kind of furniture they planed to buy for their new home and where they would celebrate this happy day that evening.  The man was Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist, the woman’s name was Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish journalist. They parted, she waiting outside and he walking nonchalantly through the doors of the Consulate building.  He never came back out.  She waited for him for 10 hours.  They never had time to even say goodbye.

 

Later, I learned that he was horrifically butchered to death immediately after entering the building.  That a trap was set for him by a team of agents of the Saudi government, who viciously assassinated him because of his dissenting views and some negative attenuated reporting about the Saudi leadership.  I spent days thinking about it all.  I could not get it out of my mind.  Upon further learning more “details,” I found myself becoming more anguished as the days passed.  I began viewing the scene as if it was an x-ray coming through a TSA screening machine.  It sickened me.  I kept thinking about Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancée.  What was she feeling?  I had no choice but to once again use my paintbrush to fight back.  The result was this painting I entitled FEAR, where I tried to capture and portray what was really happening here.

 

As I painted, I learned that Mr. Khashoggi, who was named person of the year by Time Magazine, was one of 54 journalists killed in 2018.  Further, President Donald Trump seemed to consistently avoid or divert talking about the episode.  It was obvious to me that his personal and very vocal disdain for the media played a significant role here, as well as his verbal abuse of his own intelligence community (CIA, etc.) who were reporting that the Saudi Royal Family was directly involved and may have given the orders for the terrible killing.  Also, here again, Trump was defending another autocrat, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as he consistently does in the cases of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping.  And I could not stop thinking about Hatice, who was now left with the horror of it all.  All this and more amplified my feelings as I completed the painting.