"Creativity takes courage."-Henri Matisse

On this page of the website, I'm featuring my art and what exactly it means to me. This page aims to showcase my art and connect it to the theme of "daisy chains". I have been seriously creating art since the age of thirteen and its one of my favorite hobbies. To me, my art is deeply personal and I like to focus on the themes of self-love and activism. Art has been one of the guiding factors in learning to have self-appreciation and love for myself. Becoming more confident and empowered isn't only about having a new mindset and mentality (even though that is super important!) it can also be about finding a new venue of sorts to display that self-love and growth. For the longest time, I felt very detached from my culture and really wanted to fit in. Through making art with cultural and activist motifs like I am now, I can proudly put those up on display without hesitation. I'm also featuring a guest artist, my good friend Hanein AlMaliki. Her art is absolutely amazing and I'm proud to feature her on this website.

My art, my way

Brown eyes
Yumna Dagher
Digital art
2015

The reason why I created "Brown eyes" is because of the frustration I felt in my own community towards brown eyes. In my culture, light features are seen as more beautiful and are better loved. New moms hope that their babies will have blue or green eyes, or at the very least hazel. Those features are beautiful, of course, but growing up, I hated my dark brown eyes and lamented on how everyone else had them. I ogled at contact lenses and dreamt I would be able to buy a pair when I was older. As I grew to become more confident and comfortable with myself, I learned to love my eye color. I finally found solace and happiness within myself. I loved my beautiful brown eyes, and I hope any brown-eyed girl out there looking at this piece will learn to love their eyes too. Brown eyes are spectacular, they can be the color of fresh henna, of rich chocolate, and of dirt that gives life to nutritious food. Connecting to the theme of "daisy chains" I feel like this artwork lifts up girls and tells them they are worth it!

The process of this piece was not as long as my other works. I made it entirely in the drawing program Sketchbook Pro using a drawing tablet. I was really inspired by the work of Roy Lichtenstein and how graphic and bold his work is. I wanted to emulate that in this work in particular.

Hamsa
Yumna Dagher
Wood, spray-paint, acrylic paint, glitter
2017

Hamsa is definitely based on the wall hangings and decorations you would find in your typical Middle Eastern home. Usually, these Hamsas come inscribed in Arabic text, calling for blessings and happiness, usually with a religious context. Hamsas can be a symbol of power, strength, and a potent defender of the evil eye. It can be found on jewelry, amulets, wall hangings, drawings, and other trinkets. When I started this project, I definitely wanted something that called back to my culture, but I also wanted to put my own personal take on a Hamsa. I feel like I achieved this through the bright colors and stiletto-style nails! Creating my very own Hamsa made me feel so connected with my culture. A lot of popular name brands use the hamsa as a vaguely eastern design motif without knowing the true weight behind the symbol. When I created my hamsa, I felt empowered in taking back the symbol and loving it in the process. This piece of art connects to the daisy chains theme of self-love through making and sharing art because even the simple creation of a wall hanging can be profound and uplifting for me. I plan on making more Hamsa art in the future.

I made Hamsa at TechShop in Allen Park, Michigan. Utilizing their laser etching tools, I created a file in CorelDraw and printed it on a thin sheet of wood. I also printed the nails using the laser cutter. Watching it etch away was super fun! I also created a shell that was going to be glued around the hamsa. I then spray painted the base gold. I then painted around the gold etching using hot pink acrylic paint. The shell was spray painted multiple times to give it a multi-layered effect. I then spray painted the nails hot pink with tiny little dots of
white. I put chunky gold glitter on the nails for a salon-made feel. After this, I glued them
together using a hot glue gun.

Guest artist

The drawings in the above collage were done by my good friend and amazing, artist Hanein AlMaliki. Hanein is a student at Fordson High School in Dearborn, Michigan. She is part of the class of 2020. Hanein loves expressing herself through art, listening to music (she loves Harry Styles and Kehlani), coordinating outfits, and spending time with her friends. Hanein has been drawing ever since she was very young, and is always improving. Her signature style includes realistically drawn figures with big eyebrows and lots of personality! Hanein uses a variety of mediums in her work, including vibrant colored pencils (her favorite brand is Prismacolor!), graphic markers, dark inks, and watercolor paints. Hanein inspires me to not only draw to my greatest ability, but to also portray people with a wide variety of skin tones, eye colors, and features like she does. When I asked Hanein about what she thought of "daisy chains" and the idea of connecting the stories of girls through sharing art, she said she loves that idea and tries to achieve it. She tries to achieve it through portraying strong and positive representations of girls in her drawings. She thinks it's important to create positive representations of girls and portray girls in a wide variety of ways for the younger generation. I totally couldn't agree more with Hanein's awesome initiative to tell young girls they can be anything they want to be. Go Hanein!