re: Um Na’im
Hi Uji,
Thank you for your feedback and question!
‘Naeem’ is her son’s name which means ‘Paradise’ in Arabic, ‘Um’ means a ‘mother’. She is ‘mother of Naeem’. You can read more about this prefixed naming tradition in this link .
Actually, it’s worth saying that Naeem was not her real son, his mom died when he was a small child, his dad got remarried and Naeem got a new loving mom. He remained her only child, and she loved him as a son of her own.
I’m still reflecting on your question about how I might paint her again.. I guess I would have liked to meet her again to see what her eyes might have said about life. Unfortunately, she passed away 3 years ago.
However, after I heard about her son’s death I went back to the painting and added this black brush stroke to the left side of the painting. As a symbol for her loss that will become imprinted in her identity.