Can't believe how active I was today painting. I felt the need to complete the ones I had started so I could post them! I love the Little Coptic Girl - she was the sweetest little thing, one of the zabaleen - the garbage collector's at Moqqatam - the hills above Cairo. Garbage is delivered there and by 2 pm, it has disappeared into various areas - paper, cans, organic stuff. The smell is pretty terrible on the hot days and most of the garbage people are Coptic Christians. The monastery is a little oasis full of children who go to school there and all ages, very friendly children too. Though the families collect and sort garbage, surprisingly, most little girls have gold earrings. Actually, if there is any money left, the women - Muslim, Christian wear gold and 22 or 24 K gold at that. Silver means you aren't very well off and is disdained.
The other portrait is of Amira, the journalist for the English weekly version of Al Ahram newspaper. I got the idea to include a few of the letters of the Newspaper in the portrait partly from Picasso's use of the Parisian paper in his cubist collage works. It's only 7:00 pm here but I feel like I have been working all day. I woke up and stayed up from 9:15 am. I never hear Dominique leave - she is so quiet. Only if I ask her to wake me up do I get up earlier. Anyway, it is so hot here as I stated earlier in the 10 day weather forecast for Cairo.
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