Usama and the late, great Samer

Photos my sister Sama took of my brother Samer and me.

Mayasa, Mom and Usama in Baghdad

I love my Mom.

The pic above is my beautiful Mom in Baghdad when she was 6 months pregnant with me. She is originally from Jaffa, Palestine but her family left to Iraq when she was young.

My Mother was 23 when she gave birth to me. I was her first born in Baghdad when my father was away in Iowa. My grandfather named me Usama. Once when I was young, I felt such deep love for my mother that I cried silently to myself.

A silver with orange and an apple with Miss Mara

©Usama Alshaibi

Miss Mara

©Usama Alshaibi

Bad Lit review of "My Third Painting"

ART KILLS
Here’s the literal definition of “art cinema”: Usama Alshaibi’s short piece My Third Painting, which plays like a cross between Jackson Pollock, traditional glass plane animation, and a phone call from your drug dealer. You know, part horror movie, part abstract expressionism.

Actually, I remember watching a short documentary years ago on Jackson Pollock that placed a camera under a plane of glass he dripped and drabbed his paint onto to show off his technique. Although, I would assume with Alshaibi’s piece above that he’s using some sort of video green-screening effect to approximate the same thing here. Plus, what Alshaibi can do with the green-screening that the Pollock documentary couldn’t is place the painting on several different “levels” instead of just one. It’s an interesting effect.-From Bad Lit by By Mike Everleth