My paintings are nursery rhymes. They build relationships with void.

Sometimes the void has an edge. Like a child peering over an object, I can see a line, a colour, a shade.

An image slowly emerges from the debris of detail.

It seems to come from within, genuinely and without effort.

Rarely does one painting engulf the void completely.

Often each painting is a refraction of a central idea.

Painting in series is the outcome of obsession. It allows me to express a single image from a multitude of viewpoints.

Slowly, painfully, complete distillation occurs.

Afaf Zurayk,

1997.