HELEN ZUGHAIB
Dream Catcher
60 cm x 80 cm
Gouache on unprimed wood panel
When I heard about the theme for this exhibition, I pictured a large net. This net stretched across turbulent waters to "catch" and protect anyone crossing. In my piece it serves as the bridge that holds both people and positive thoughts safely above troubled waters and times.
My dream-catching net is a symbol of unity,filtering out negative thoughts that slip through the holes in the net.My peacock holds the net in his beak, assuring guidance and protection.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Helen Zughaib lived mostly in the Middle East and Europe before coming to the United States to study art. She received her BFA from Syracuse University, College of Visual and Performing Arts.
Helen works primarily in gouache, an opaque watercolor, and ink on board.
Her work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Europe and Lebanon. Her paintings are included in many private and public collections, including the White House, World Bank, Library of Congress, US Consulate General in Vancouver, Canada, American Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, and the Arab American National Museum in Detroit, Michigan.
In 2008, Helen was invited as US Cultural Envoy through the State Department to Palestine, where she led a workshop with Palestinian women artists in Ramallah. In 2009, she was sent to Switzerland under the State Department’s Speaker and Specialist Program. President Obama gave one of Helen's pieces to former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, upon his official visit to the White House, and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, gave one of her pieces to the King of Morocco.