Mountain Olives 2003

Samia Halaby made "Mountain Olives" with paint, and what hits me first is how she handles the stuff. It's like she’s not just painting a picture but building a world, one dab and stroke at a time. Looking closely, the surface is alive. The paint ranges from thick globs to transparent washes, letting the white of the ground peek through. You can almost feel the energy of her hand as she worked, building up these dense, textured areas, especially those dark, looming shapes at the top. I wonder what kind of tools she used. Did she use brushes, or something else? It’s tough to tell, but that’s part of the fun. Halaby reminds me a little of someone like Joan Mitchell, especially in how she fearlessly throws color around, but Halaby's got a different kind of architecture to her work. I appreciate her bold approach to process, and how she makes space for ambiguity and multiple interpretations.