Artist Talk Response (Artist David Najib Kasir April 6)

David Najib Kasir depicts the horror of war and the desperation to keep their families safe and intact by using acrylic, encaustic, and mixed media as his mediums of art. He creates large, two-dimensional acrylic paintings that do not show the thickness of the brush strokes, and small, thickly layered encaustic and mixed media paintings.

What struck me as particularly interesting about Kasir's work is the similarity between the two styles of painting he uses. Both styles utilize collage techniques to create images out of lines and colors, with a focus on creating a contrasting effect between the grayscale background and the colorful figures. In both styles, Kasir uses tiles and beautiful and intricate Arab mosaics to replace concrete depictions of people and environments.

Overall, I found Kasir's work to be visually stunning and thought-provoking. His use of collage techniques and contrasting colors and patterns creates a unique and intriguing aesthetic that draws the viewer in. The way he blends traditional painting techniques with mixed media elements is particularly impressive and adds depth and texture to his work. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about his creative process and exploring his artwork.

Perhaps because I have not personally experienced war. I cannot fully empathize with the guns, destroyed buildings, and shelters in his materials. But when I saw the children in his works, the young people holding guns, the headless adults holding children, and the parents holding children, I was deeply touched.Perhaps it is the common parent-child scenes in his memory that contrast with the silhouettes in his works. In his works, I feel solemn and desolate. A face without facial features is only adorned with floral tile patterns. Even if the pattern is beautiful and colorful, it is not a humanized warm and friendly appearance. Perhaps those children who didn't come and grew up lost their parents. As they grew up, the faces of their deceased loved ones became blurred, leaving only the warm touch of embrace in their memories. On the contrary, the scene of dilapidated shelters and people facing each other with guns left an indelible shadow in their memories. They want to forget, but many years after the end of the war, they will still be awakened by the sense of insecurity and suffering engraved in their bones by seeing similar dilapidated buildings or smelling the smell of fireworks, like a cursed snake winding around their five senses.