Across Syria & Inside Homs: Mohammad Tulaimat: A World Of Childish Miniatures

November 1 - 30 2005

The City of Chicago Human Relations Advisory Council on Arab Affairs presents:"Painting Exhibit of Syrian Artist Mohammad Tulaimat: A colorful exhibit of Mohammad Tulaimat's paintings, a well-known Syrian artist, will be displayed.

MOHAMMED TULAIMAT: A WORLD OF CHILDISH MINIATURE

By: Rana S. Atassi

A scratch on the wall of time…on the walls of the neighborhood…or maybe on the walls of the heart…a comfort colored with childhood, dips its brush in the charm of spontaneity and dives freely into the painting. Mohammed Tulaimat, the painter of the serene smile and dreaming eyes; when you wonder about him, you’ll find him in his paintings and his paintings in him; he resembles himself. He extremely resembles his art. You can recognize him among many artists through his transparent paintings.
He studied Civil Engineering and adored art so much that he had his own adventures in it. He was born in Homs, Syria; and took a lot of this city’s silence and serenity. Today, his artistic experiment takes another dimension of childish miniatures rich in theme and affiliation. His lines meet, then separate, differ and contrast. But the best of it is how they swing as a child swings in his first steps -he falls down then gets up again- overwhelmed with the joy of walking on his own for the first time on this Earth. The paintings travel with the sails of spontaneity and simplicity to the kingdom of colorful childhood, where the old castles touch the magic of tales and play in their fabulous playgrounds.
In Mohammed Tulaimat’s world, a little moon takes you far away. Then you come back on the wings of a young rose to find yourself, later, riding a butterfly playing with happy mythical figures which resemble nothing, but at the same time resemble us. They are close to our remote childhood. They take you to the childhood of old neighborhoods where walls are full of dancing paintings. Thus, their fragrance carries you to that sweet intimacy and warmth reminding you of childhood memories and the spirits of the place. Then suddenly, the painting evokes the same feelings of the eternal and spiritual fragrance that these places evoke.
Sometimes we wonder: does M. Tulaimat reflect spontaneously, in the painting, what his imagination produces leaving his brush to express itself freely? Or is it something ready in his mind that he wants to empty it into the painting in harmony? In both cases there comes up a world of childish miniatures with a variety of drawings and compositions that create an alphabet of overlapping letters and numbers. It’s like the scratches of a child who is learning how to read and write to sail into the world of knowledge. Other times, these miniatures become symphonic, distinct and parallel, and take you for a moment to the mihrab of intellectual contemplating and silent mystic prayer.
Finally, you stop at M. Tulaimat’s world as a station for transparent joy and an invitation for love and purity. The moment you pass by this station, you throw your cares away and sit in its shadow. Then, you get up and hit the road of life with a new pure spirit and a beautiful heart full of hope and love to face the rottenness and hostility of life.
Rana S. Atassi, Teshreen Newspaper.2001