The Keys of Hope

" Form the River to the Sea " Mixed Media with keys.

The artwork is an imaginary landscape. I saw an image of the Palestinian flag blowing in the wind. The shape and colours, and as the flag billowed it reminded me of a landscape. I re-created the image as a digital painting. Later I read about nearly a million Palestinian people who were forced leave their land and houses in 1948 during the "Nakba" (“The Catastrophe”). Many of those people and their descendants, now living in refugee camps in neighbouring countries have kept the keys to their houses which are now in Israeli hands.
The keys are a symbol that one day they will be allowed to return. I sent out a request on social media if anyone could donate old keys for use on an artwork. I received over 200 keys. The keys then went through processes to age them using a number of chemical solutions to give them a blackened, rusty or verdigris finish.
The artwork shows a stream of keys returning to a Palestinian town, and for the people a return to their homes and a "new beginning". The artwork is painted in acrylics using the colours of the Palestinian flag, red, green, black and white, the combination of colours which were once banned from artworks in Israel. The title of the artwork " From the River to the Sea " refers to the hope that in the future ALL people can live freely in the land from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.