Social Slave

Hash and I were at the Al Ghawali Center opposite Arraya few days ago and we saw this beautiful ceramic wall mural next to Schlotzsky’s.

If you look at the large-sized version of this image carefully, it has a little bit of everything about Kuwait’s history, culture and heritage. At the bottom right I noticed the name of the artist - Jean Powell. So I looked up online and found an interesting article on The Telegraph from 1996 that describes Jean as “the world-leading ceramicist whose mosaics are sought after by the richest oil sheikhs” and that she got successful from one of orders she got from Kuwait National Oil Company.

I wonder if this is the one they are mentioning in the article and what is such a valuable handmade piece of art doing in the corner of a building next to a restaurant?

Here is the [Link] to the enlarged version of the image and you can see more of her work on her company’s website [Craig Bragdy Design].

I just came across a very interesting website.

The ‘T-Walls’ or ‘Texas Walls’ are portable concrete walls that are used for blast protection around the US military camps in Kuwait and Iraq. The US soldiers turned these concrete walls into pieces of art. They would wait for nightfall and then paint the walls in the floodlight with their Unit insignia, cavalry scenes, American icons or sports mascots.

George Hauer, the editor of the book,  first learned of the walls when his friend sent him an e-mail and three photos. He then set out to photograph these walls before they were lost forever since they were already being damaged by the sun, sand and mortar rounds fired at them. He then edited a 208-page hardcover book called “The T-Walls of Kuwait and Iraq” with a massive collection of those walls, a photographic footprint that will exist after the walls are gone for good.

“It’s a document of our presence and who was there and how the soldiers felt about their time there,” Hauer said.

Seven military photographers crisscrossed Kuwait and Iraq, using their cameras to capture the images on these walls.

One wall is designed to resemble the Terrible Towels that Pittsburgh Steelers fans wave at home games. Another includes the word “Transporters,” sketched to appear similar to the logo from the hit series “Transformers.” A Las Vegas unit put Elvis on its wall; a Massachusetts unit painted the Boston Celtics’ leprechaun on its wall.

“We’ve been getting orders of the book from soldiers now, because it’s part of their life,” Hauer said. ” ‘We were there. That was us.’ “

Click [Here] for more information and if you would want to buy the book. All proceeds from the sale of the book will go to help severely wounded service men and women.

It takes years of practice to master the carving of a Dutch Garden Candle. The process is amazing and I’m sure it would hurt to burn one of these.

Check out the online shop of Holland House Candles [Here]