I thought here of an old friend, retired now after a lot of loss and a life that was full of meaning but also troubled in a lot of ways. His love of nature, his desire to be alone, the way he always sees the world as fresh and abundant. His comfort in being alone though he always seeks ways to help others.
It’s available here: https://www.artpal.com/joeldhirst?i=319328-43
They’re not really mountains at all, from somebody who grew up in the foothills of the Andes Mountains, soaring 24,000 feet above. But they have tremendous charm; they are old, and as they roll back and back you can get lost in them. Virginia is quite beautiful — it’s no surprise that for the founders this was the first state among equals (3 of the first 5 presidents were from here).
You can buy it here: https://www.artpal.com/joeldhirst?i=319328-28
Early in the first century King Abgar V of Edessa was sick. He heard of a holy man in Jerusalem, named Jesus, and sent his messenger and his court portraitist to invite Jesus to Edessa. Abgar could not cross Roman lands. He knew Jesus was in danger and invited him to share his city. Jesus responded that he had a different destiny, but he sent Thaddeus to heal the king and the portraitist returned with a painting of Jesus. It was called the Mandylion, the first icon, and it hung in the halls of Edessa for a thousand years, keeping the city safe. I imagine this is what it looked like.
You can buy it here: https://www.artpal.com/joeldhirst?i=319328-17
My wife said she seems like somebody who would get offended easy 🙂 — But I think the glasses softened her. This is painting number 100. They are now hanging in the office of a U.S. Senator, in the office of President Bush, in an art gallery for former USAID employees, in the Democracy Art collection of the National Endowment of Democracy, in the office of Maria Corina Machado the Nobel Prize winner, and in the house of Yo Yo Ma. You should probably get one too 🙂 — https://www.artpal.com/joeldhirst?i=319328-39
In Venice — https://www.artpal.com/joeldhirst/?i=319328-7
This one got a little weird, but it’s sort of striking. https://www.artpal.com/joeldhirst/?i=319328-21
“Pretty soon my five years in the Senate will be coming to an end. On a trip to Mexico, the U.S. Ambassador was introducing the Senator and said, “Everything of any significance to the life of our nation goes through the eye of the needle of the Senate. So, it’s my honor to say we have a Senator in the house.” That was the moment when I think I first realized who the Senators really are — they are the guardians of our republic. Caretakers…” Read the rest here.
The Tuareg are deep desert Berbers, who live in the Sahara. They have been there since pre-history, probably from days when the Sahara was green and lush. They believe that they are the original Egyptians who built the pyramids, pushed out by the Arabs to first build their Garamantian empire and then take refuge in the desert. They are matriarchal; the men are veiled. The tomb of Tin Hinan, their great queen, from the 400s, was “found” by the French in Algeria. She united the clans into the first great Tuareg kingdom. Their language is Afro-Asiatic, (the mother of six language groups, including the Semitic) and might even be the original. Their alphabet is ancient Phoenician. https://www.artpal.com/joeldhirst?i=319328-36
I also wrote a novel about the Tuareg and the 2012 civil war (which has since restarted). If you buy the painting, I’ll throw in a signed copy of the novel:
Be honest sometimes you feel like this. You can purchase it here, if you want: https://www.artpal.com/joeldhirst/?i=319328-41
The center of Timbuktu is a flat sandy area called Sankore Place, under the Sankore Mosque which used to host the famous Sankore University 700 years ago. There, 20,000 people came from all over the Muslim world to study using the Socratic method. They have an epic library, 500,000 manuscripts from philosophers and medicine and astronomy to cooking and religious books. It is said that once a famous Islamic scholar came to Timbuktu to teach, but couldn’t pass the entrance exam to be a teacher and had to go to Fez in Morocco for four years of remedial studies before being allowed to return.
Timbuktu is now again besieged by jihadis, as it has been off and on for centuries. It is a perilous place to go, and very, very poor. But if you have your histories and your stories, you are never totally destitute.
You can buy it here, if you want: https://www.artpal.com/joeldhirst
Joel D. Hirst's Blog 