Don Michael HudsonReflectionsProfessor of Religious Studies, Author, Photographer

Colors of Palestine Calendar 2023

There is a community in Canada who supports Palestinians and their cause for justice. Each year, they produce a beautiful calendar utilizing and profiling Palestinian artists, poets, and supporters. Image and word profile their talents while at the same time calling for the end of occupation and oppression. This morning I ordered their 2023 calendar.

Want to do some good in a beautiful way? Order one of their calendars. But don’t delay–I don’t know why, but they run out quickly.

https://resistanceart.com/gallery/

I have chosen what I think is quite a beautiful image accompanied by words from Darwish. You can see this page below.

And many thanks to my dear friend, Nancy Harb Almendres, for letting me know about Resistance Art.

Colors of Palestine Calendar
Resistance Art
Don Michael Hudson, PhD

Jerash Cardo, Jerash, Jordan

Reflections

Jerash, Jordan (June 2022)

The Cardo (main street)

Canon R5

I tell anyone who will listen that Jerash is one of the best places to see and experience Roman art and architecture. The ancient city has most definitely been modified by subsequent cultures, but one can get quite close and observe the original city like few sites. Want to see ancient Rome? Visit Jerash.

Frida Kahlo’s Birthday

Reflections

Last week was Frida Kahlo’s birthday. She was definitely an outlier and misunderstood when she died in 1954. Now she is so popular she has collapsed into a cliche’. Last summer in Antwerp, there was an exhibition of her own photography and photos of her, her family, her life, her work. She endured a life of pain, but she painted much more than her pain. She rendered the pain graphically and honestly without effacing the beauty. I love her work for this reason, mostly. I mean–who can do that well? Painting pain and beauty in the same brush stroke?

“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.”

Frida Kahlo