I purchased this painting yesterday from a store in Amman. It is by an Iraqi artist who recently received the rare privilege of being able to emigrate to Sweden. I've made it a point when I travel to buy a piece of art from all the countries I visit. My one requirement is that the painting must encapsulate my impression of the place. It has taken me a while to find this particular painting. You go into a store here and everything is camels and bustling street markets. This has not been my overriding impression of the Middle East. This man sits smoking a desperate cigarette, full of longing, yet lacking almost all hope for the future. Yet there remains the candle, and he clings to that as people here cling to the idea that things will get better one day. Unfortunately I hear a lot about Barack Obama making everything better, and very little about Jordanians making things better. I suppose a monarchy kills ambition the same as anti-depressants and pot do back in the States. Nevertheless, I find hope in this painting. The artist must have painted it when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, and then fate intervened. Now he's in Sweden, perhaps a bit guilty, and certainly struggling for inspiration.
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