In my painting, I explore the fragmented nature of personal memory and cultural legacy with a multidisciplinary approach. I explore both my Egyptian heritage and queerness, transforming personal archives into cinematic painted collages. My process involves sifting through photographs, from those I have taken to detailed images of distant relatives, juxtaposing intimate moments with broader historical contexts, while seeking the duality of tenderness and eroticism.

The artists who inspire me, like JEB, Anthony Cudahy, and Dima Mikhayel Matta, focus primarily on the simple intimacy and beauty of experiencing and observing queer love, something that is unnecessarily politicized today. It is this search for tenderness that inspires the use of cropping and the use of ultra-tactile materials, like velvet, in my work. While these methods of framing serve as cinematic devices, they also bring forth an immediate intimacy of space and body. By embracing the kitschy and the tactile in my work, as well as my family archive and legacy, I seek to engage with queer and lesbian imagery in a way that challenges traditional narratives and representations.