In progress: Fish and cats By Aly El-Guindy Zeinab El-Segeiny, born in 1930, graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo. She received a PhD in Art Education and Design from Helwan University in 1957, since when she has been awarded many prizes. She has held many solo exhibitions in Cairo and other countries. Her works are included in the Museum of Egyptian Modern Art in Cairo, Alexandria and Minya. I chose to paint when I got married. I decided to leave my job as a graphic designer. I used to sit and watch my husband from afar while he was so immersed in his paintings, so taken by them. A graphic designer, on the other hand, waits for somebody to give them an assignment, to commission a book cover or a poster. So I was very happy to be free to pick my own subjects and my own medium. I started painting and received very positive feedback and encouragement from people around me. At first my style was figurative, then it became semi-abstract, then fully abstract. At that point I noticed that I was just doing geometrical equations and precise mental measurements. I did not feel comfortable with this style so I returned to my earlier style. I do not like to go with the flow of fashionable artistic waves. I stand my ground. I was intrigued from the beginning by Ancient Egyptian as well as the folkloric grassroots of Egyptian art. When my knowledge expanded through reading I felt that it was important to familiarise myself with our heritage -- Coptic, Islamic and all the other cultures that lived on this land. This is useful if we are not to be confined to a certain epoch and recreate carbon copies of it. Of course now, in the 21st century, it is perfectly useless to copy Pharaonic art. Different thoughts, different concepts produced that art and we cannot possibly replicate them. Today the situation is different and I have to represent the present day and age. But this does not mean that there isn't something that you can feel behind my work. But you can feel that without saying that this specific sign or figure is derived from the Pharaonic, Coptic or Islamic heritage. You sense all these cultures in my work, which is as it should be. I prefer it when people do not embellish or reconstruct their style over and over again, for often it is suffocating. Nor would I want work to be too tied to reflecting an optical truth -- then it grows cold and loses its vitality and freshness. In my opinion, simple and spontaneous styles are most effective. I paint with ease. I move slowly. I have an exhibition every three to four years. I do not have these mind boggling transitions in style. I progress slowly along my own path. In my most recent exhibition the subjects were drawn from the environment that surrounds me. I use certain recurring symbols in my paintings such as the cat, the pigeon, the fish, the Nile, the sea, and women. I consider the Nile to be part of our life. I lived for five years in Alexandria and the sea is something psychologically pleasing to me; its space, its vastness, the colour. A fish for me means goodness and a high sense of optimism. In every exhibition I have at least one fish. I am always asked why there are only women in my paintings. Ibrahim Abdel-Malak came to my most recent exhibition with a psychologist and I told them please help me, I am asked this question 50 times a day. Ibrahim said that man is included -- the women are his sisters, his lovers, his daughters. I do not have any animosity towards men. My relationship with my husband was perfectly happy. I have a daughter now and she is all my life. I do not know, I just like to draw women, I guess. This does not mean I have any hostility or psychological problems towards the other sex at all. For me the cat symbolises family peace and family union. One rarely finds a cat living in a fractious house filled with arguments and conflicts. I feel that cats live in calm and tranquil environments. I don't know, but this is a feeling I have about cats and birds. They are symbols of serene and compassionate coexistence within the home. I hanker after the kind of harmonious family life I remember from my past. Maybe the deteriorating economic situation is one of the reasons why families have become so scattered. The mother and the father and the children are all involved in seeking financial gain, in seeking to improve their social status. And the result is that it is the children who are the victims, it is their childhood that is negated. I see a person looking at my paintings and admiring the little girl who is sitting on her mother's shoulders, and how the mother is worried about her, and the daughter is feeling secure and safe. I ask myself why this person is so fond of this scene. This person is missing the love and care of a family. I always say that I am an amateur, that I paint as a hobby. Professionalism requires you accept responsibilities that I do not want to accept. I work whenever I please and paint whatever I wish. I am not involved in the protocols of a professional artistic life. I paint whatever comes to mind. I do not want anybody to control or judge me. I am free. I am not a painter. Not an artist with a capital A. Freedom is important in every life but you must have a foundation and principles to guide you. You should not let anything suffocate you because that imprisons everything inside you. It imprisons your feelings and thoughts. It can even affect your breathing, this psychological feeling that you are being pressured to do something that you do not want to do. This is a very difficult situation. As long as you are not harming anyone and you are fulfilling your duties, why not be free? I feel like I am still formally confined. I hope that I can go outside this form a little bit and become freer. In my previous exhibition I was able to slightly change my form. It was similar to primitive art. I feel like I have not yet attained the amount of freedom I want in my style. Maybe if God prolongs my life a bit I will be able to achieve that. Art is my livelihood. If I was not painting I do not think that my life would continue. I hope that I will have the health and strength to continue painting. I would like to put my work next to the work of my late husband in the museum we have established to show our work.
