Iconograpy: A Portfolio of Creative Works

ICONOGRAPHY

Write::Design::Illustrate

//Adam Chamy

Iconography

Portfolio | Adam Chamy

Creative works - whether they be narratives, portraits, or photography - are icons. That is all art serves as placeholders reminding the audience of emotions, events, people, or places in their own memory. I invite you to experience the iconography of my creative enterprises in this portfolio of visual and written narratives, illustrations, fine art, photography, and graphic design. “Of refuge, of home� is a collection of art & narratives from a recent solo art show, assemblege decribes my process for making art, capital refers to my role as an educator and illustrator, consumerism(s) follows art as a commercial enterprise, and the 4th estate outlines accolades & press.

Above Works: Reagan- a portrait in sepia (left).

The Lacewell Family - a family portrait painted on a bed headboard (middle left)

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of refuge, of home assembledge capital

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consumerism(s) daguerreotype the 4th estate

Above Works: Jaipur, India - a veiled woman searches for pottery at a local market (middle right) Numbered - patterns of numbers and an abstract figure (right)

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OF REFUGE OF HOME

“Of Refuge, Of Home� is an exhibition exploring identity, myth, and home through a series of family portraits and installation works that weaving themes of migration, roots, and belonging. Faces of Texan farmers hang side by side with Jerusalem merchants. One has centuries-old ties to land through frontier settlement of the American South.

The other, an enterprising global Levantine merchant family, faces a broken homeland severed by colonization and war. Together these fragmented myths and stories formulate an identity questioning the idea of home and form a story of a bicultural Arab-Americana.

This diptych of my parents is based off photos taken in approximately 1952. Most of my work in the series concerns near-mythical, or long-deceased, members of my family. Here, instead, I followed another sort of mythical past, that of my parents as kids.

Gran, my mom’s mother, died when I was young, but I remember her Depression-era will as thrifty, kind, and strong. In fact it was that power I remember most about her. She had an unmatched ability to bring silence to a room.

The unifying part of this piece is the suitcase.

Indeed, it was travel that brought the subjects together. My dad from Palestine to the United States, my mom from her small hometown of Cleburne to the nearby city of Fort Worth. In a sense, it was a suitcase that made my parents my parents at all.

When she grew sick, Gran proved every prognosis wrong when she walked again after a debilitating stroke. In the end, she cheated the sorrow of death by imprinting memories of her courageous will upon all her family to this very day.

Diptych 1952 \\ Acrylic & Ink on Canvas and Suitcase

Gran \\ Acrylic on Found Chair

Salim Acrylic & Badge on Found Wood

I know this grandfather only through stories and old photographs. He started a thriving textile business in New York City but later returned back to his homeland to search for a wife and start a family.

Indeed, he managed to start a family, but he never got to watch it grow and mature. Extremists took his life during the early days of al-Nakba, or the 1948 war in Palestine. He is immortalized now in photographs, fables echoed by my grandmother, and the whispers of memories.

John Chamy Acrylic, India Ink, and Charcoal on Found Crate

Jack Daniel was the name of my grandfather on my mom’s side, not some Tennessee whiskey, but I knew him better as Granddaddy. My strongest memories of him were his glowing blue eyes and his thick accent. I was a young child when he was around, so he never spoke much to me about his infantry service in World War II. His feet froze during his service and caused him problems for the rest of his life.

Yet he survived it all. Defending his land, he came out alive, his kind smile unbroken. It is this image of him I will always remember, an image I tried to capture: a young 70-year-old with a twinkle in his eye that would last him all his years and beyond.

Granddaddy (or Jack Daniel) Mixed Media on Medicine Cabnit

Nicolas DeSimini was my greatgrandfather. Born in Bari, Italy, he migrated at a young age to Jerusalem. He was a merchant, builder, architect, shop owner, musician and tile designer. His tile was shipped throughout the region, adorning hotels and homes across the Middle East.

Today many of his buildings still stand despite war and time. Ironically, one such building is used as an office by the Israeli government near the Knesset building in Jerusalem. The same state drove from his home and destroyed his business and livelihood.

Nicolas DeSimini Acrylic on Found Crate

A R T A S S TO RY T E L L I N G

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Assemblage u h -sem-blij

An artistic or creative process consisting of making threedimensional or two-dimensional compositions by putting together found objects

A State of Mind

Hampshire Acyrlic, New Hampshire License Plates, Linen, Butterfly Wing, Earring on Canvas

For me, art is the act of translating the everyday into something with meaning. Assemblage refers to art made by combining various found art. I find objects – perhaps a butterfly wing, a used license plate, or a disregarded Polaroid – and reconstitute it into something artistic. I draw inspiration from the quotidian. Hampshire was a portrait inspired from the license plate of New Hampshire with the provocative motto: “Live Free or Die”. I physically cut up the license plate and integrated it into the work itself. Untitled is a more abstract work made from disregarded paint & used canvas. Lost Gaze is inspired from a destroyed photograph that had its colors distorted and was water damaged. I re-imagined the scene through the destruction and followed lines to create this abstract visual portrait. My process of creating is a form of sustainability – finding use for what others find useless.

“drawing inspiration from the quotidian”

Feeling Abstraction

Untitled

Oil Paint on Canvas 12 x 16

Following the Line

LostGaze

Wa t e r c o l o r & I n k , 24 x 18

A R T A S S U S TA I N A B I LY

©a p i t a l

Illustrations from “Washington, DC” a children’s book made in collaboration with NumbesAlive! - a brand dedicated to making math fun for young learners.

Six Helmets Iwo Jim Memorial Pe n & I n k i l l u s t r a t i o n \ \ D i g i t a l C o l o r i n g

The project explored numbers through whimsical illustrations of architectural landmarks in Washington, DC. The goal was to encourage love of math through recognition of numbers in everyday life.

8 Columns T h e N a t i o n a l Po r t ra i t G a l l e r y Pe n & I n k i l l u s t r a t i o n \ \ D i g i t a l l y C o l o r e d

The Chinese Friendship Archway was a gift from the government of China to the US. Union Station was the historical gateway of the District of Columbia.

There are 9 justices on the Supreme Court the body in charge of interpreting US laws.

Art as something...

Whimsical Educational Mathematical

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Consumerism(s) Art can play a role in commerce too.

During my tenure as Director of the American Educational Trust Book Club & Palestinian Arts/ Crafts Trust, I used my background in design to promote the brand. These are selection of postcards (above) and flyer (below/up) I designed to promote the organzation.

ART AS COMMERCE

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Daguerreotype

A conversation with surroundings through digital art and photography.

Dien Bien Fu, Vietnam The mist gathered on the plain in the early morning as I headed to the Laotian border. /Above/

Phnom, Penh The child-monk gazed into the resevoir near the Temple of the Thousand Buddhas /Below Left/

Luang Prabang, Laos While very much in danger, Elephants can still be found in Southeast Asia /Below Left/

Hanoi, Vietnam Antiques were particularly common in the old markets of Hanoi. /Below Right/

Fort Worth, Texas Amy leaned against an old railcar outside of the stockyards near downtown Fort Worth on that hot, sunny Texas day. /Above Left/

Colleyville, Texas The two minature donkeys gazed at me from between their bars. The eccentric neighbor with his exotic animals met the surrealism that can emerge from a Polaroid /Above Right/

Washington, DC Potomak Technology has allowed art to reach the medium of the mouse.

Potomak is a digital work exploring the idea of place through transforming a historical map of the District of Columbia into a tree. /Left/ Art as ...

SPEAKING VIA LENS

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the 4th Estate ART AS EXHIBITION Select accolades & press The Gallery at the Jerusalem Fund

Dallas Museum of Art

Seletcted press for the “Of Refuge, Of Home” exhibit. Also featured on “Art Beat” with Sean Rameswaram WAMU- Washington’s NPR station.

Seletcted press for the “Hanging with the Masters” exhibition January 2004. Also featured in various smaller local press.

The Washingon Post’s Express Newspaper (below)

Dallas Morning News (above) Fort Worth Star Telegram (right)