BIG THANKS!!!!

Amer Al-Obaidi

An Artist Journey Amer al-Obaidi is a world renowned Iraqi artist whose paintings can be found in nearly every major museum of modern art in the Middle East. He is the former Director of the National Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad and former General Director of Fine Arts of Iraq. He has shown in exhibitions and galleries in cities in several continents. Amer’s story began in Baghdad, where he was born in 1943. He grew up in a large family who encouraged his passion for art throughout his childhood. His talent and mastery of design and color gained him early recognition and he won first prize at the celebrated International Festival in Ibiza, Spain at the age of 22. He began his career teaching art in Saudi Arabia, then designing illustrations for newspapers, magazines and children’s publications in his native Baghdad. Amer’s achievements in the cultural ministry gradually propelled him through the administrative ranks of the Iraqi govern¬ment’s best art museums. He organized national festivals, painted murals in airports across the country and traveled the world to display his work in Cairo, Sao Paulo, Moscow, London, Ibiza and Paris. In 1975, Amer married Sawsan Abdulkarim, a school teacher who has been his constant "muse". They raised two children, a son Bader and a daughter Bedor, in a big house in central Baghdad. Bader was killed in January, 2006, by a roadside bomb while he waited for his parents and sister who were shopping in the nearby market. Sawsan was seriously injured in the explosion and eventually lost her leg. To escape the ongoing violence in Baghdad, Amer and his family fled Iraq in 2007, along with most of his country’s cultural and intellectual elite who have been targeted for widespread attacks by extremists. After taking asylum in Syria, the family was referred for resettlement to a third country by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). They arrived in Des Moines, Iowa in August, 2008 through the sponsorship of the Refugee Cooperative of Lutheran Services in Iowa /Catholic Charities. They carried five suitcases and one painting on a rolled up canvas.

~From Amer's Bio

Check out the story in the Des Moines Register too!

Art in Baghdad from the BBC

This is an interesting blog written by a girl in Iraq.

Please think about and write @ least two questions you can ask Mr. AlObaidi. Perhaps about life in Iraq, art, his choice of subject and materials, working habits, family, inspiration, life in Iowa, politics, war, family, etc.

Artist creates invisible car

A fun artist Mel found! Check it out!