Alison Williams

Basra o Basra
oil on canvas
12 x 20 in.

My painting “Basra o Basra” is a response to the war which was so acutely portrayed on every news channel. I was severely pregnant at the time (Amber is now 5 mths old) and could not identify with the suffering and loss of life. Mainly I felt a tremendous anger, and a pity for the women. They are always the ones that suffer the most. Men fight but they look after themselves. Women have to protect their children and worry about their sons at war etc. When I saw that maternity section in the hospital hit and all those babies and women that lost their lives. Hence my painting . . .

It portrays two “women” one with a wing, waiting for their sons and children’s return, but one woman is stitched up patchwork, mother, and the other is emaciated, bald, they are the ghosts of mothers, the eternal sufferers waiting patiently. Not even death stops their mourning.

© Alison Williams