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In comparison to last year, it was a much easier experience & I spent the occasion observing others – something I very much enjoy doing [in case you haven’t noticed yet] ๐
It’s Monday, and I have a beautiful tune for you. This is another Joe Hisaishi, from the soundtrack of Howl’s Moving Castle. Enjoy and have an amazing week! ๐
Ending_ The Promise Of The World_ The Merry-Go-Round Of Life-cut
I was very happy to give a workshop at Nasawiya about using illustration to deal with your frustrations. I had a great time, met lovely people, and we all drew and chatted about illustration. Add to that cake and juice, how better can it get? ๐
I’d like to thank Nadine Moawad and Joelle Hatem for helping me to organize it, Jessica Dheere from SMEX for the projector, and everyone who attended for their participation and making this fun!
Here’s the outcome of the workshop, for more photos, check out the Facebook photos.
My illustration of the event:
Nadine‘s funny -true story- comic: [click to enlarge]
Joelle‘s existential cartoon ๐ [click to enlarge]
A 12-year old girl, Alice El Asmar, surprised us all with her AMAZING TALENT, she’s a real pro [wacom and blog and all!]
Jessica‘s cartoon who looks just like her!
Nadim’s also kind of existential cartoon
Abeer‘s drawing against photography restrictions in Leb – She’s right!
Ali’s Gemmayze demonstration:
If your drawings aren’t here, please send them to me at maya.zankoul [at] gmail [dot] com!
Have a lovely weekend all ๐ I’m off to play some piano…
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Believe it or not, this story is 100% true! [Well, except the drinking part, it’s not true just yet.] I wish you all a lovely Monday, with today’s song ‘Wild Horses’ & I’m not exactly sure who sings it… Enjoy! ๐
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If you’ve been at a bank [that I won’t name] or at Liban Post lately, then you have surely noticed the new “numbering” system. I had to wait about 40 minutes for my turn to come, so I thought that I might as well observe and analyze the different interactions happening there! ๐ I wonder how long it will take for the new system to be understood by people coming for transactions!
I’ll now leave you with this beautiful song, covered by Eva Cassidy “Song Bird”. Have a beautiful day! ๐
That this post is being added live at LAU social class!
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I know one or two who will recognized themselves in the comics ๐ I have very beautiful memories from those 2 days spent in Zahle, thanks again to all of you who showed up at the exhibition, and who gave me feedback, I really enjoyed it! To those who missed it, here are the photos of the event, tag yourselves and your friends. Tomorrow, I will be giving a presentation in Ayman Itani‘s class at LAU, and will be posting live from there! ๐ See you then!
![Last week, March 8 [International womenโs day], was the opening of โAmalgameโ exhibition at the French Culture Center [CCF] of Zahle. It was a chance to discover a beautiful town far from Beirutโs chaos...](https://mayazankoul.com/amalgam/amalgam/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/zahle-amalgame.png "zahle-amalgame")
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… That was the “touristic” aspect of the Zahle visit! Isn’t Lebanon just beautiful? You can see some photos of the visit on the Facebook page. Tomorrow, I will tell you about the “serious aspect” i.e. exhibition, book-signing and encounters with lovely local schools & university students.
And before I leave you to your busy days, here are 2 Lebanese songs that I love [for a change!] byย Fairouz: Al Bint Al Chalabiya & Shayef El Bahr Shou Kbir. Enjoy & have a beautiful day ๐
Everytime I get an email from Qifa Nabki with his latest idea for a collab, I get very excited about illustrating it! Here’s our latest! [Click on the image to view the full post]
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And if I might ad, the execution of the C&F ad is terrible, as it is clearly a cushion inserted into the woman’s clothes, and not a baby.
Again, I’d like to thank Exotica and their creative team for responding positively to the criticism of their campaign [I knew from trusted sources that the reason they updated the campaign is because of the reaction they saw through social media]. If that’s the case, then they are pioneers ๐ What do you guys think about the other campaigns I just shared?
Exotica is now all over the Lebanese blogosphere: Raafat Hamze analyzes the campaign change here, and there isย Plus961‘s, Liliane‘s & Joe‘s take on this.
On another note, I got back from Zahleh [as you might have noticed :P] and will update you tomorrow! Have a beautiful day with this smooth song from Spirited Away soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi!
Yesterday, Saturday 27th February, I got the chance to give a presentation to the children of the Armenian Thorossian school in Bourj Hammoud. We talked about drawing, blogging, going after what you truly like doing in life. And we had a lot of fun! I only have this terrible photo that I took with my phone from where I was presenting.
In other news, yesterday was also the book signing of the illustrated Arabic poetry book Haltabees (ุญูุชุจูุณุ ุงุดุนุงุฑ ู ู ุณู ุณู ูุฎูุงุฑ), result of the collaboration between the incredibly talented David Habchy & Rania Zaghir. Mashrou3 Leila also sang the poems, and cucumbers & semsom were given away with the book. Beautiful combo & beautiful people! AND I got my copy signed! ๐
I wish you a beautiful Sunday, and I can only tell you one thing: you’re in for a special surprise tomorrow!!! ๐ So stay tuned! And while you wait, I leave you with Lhasa de Sela’s Desdeรฑosa.
Un, deux, trois. Deux, deux trois…
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You might say I am overreacting. However, the reason I am, is because I believe huge billboards have great influence on the large amount of people who cross them daily. Big corporations should thus think twice before shouting such messages at us. And I do know that “it got people talking about it”, but wouldn’t it be better if it also, on the way, got through a more responsible message?
Anyway, I just had to say what I think about this campaign, it’s been bothering me everyday when I pass by it. Now, back to music, here’s Sarah Vaughn’s Broken Hearted Melody. Have a wonderful day ๐
Post featured on itoot.net
I was very excited to collaborate again with the amazing Qifa Nabki on designing icons for iPhone Apps tailored to fit the Lebanese lifestyle needs!
To know the story behind every app, click on the image below!
I can’t believe the DVD guy WATCHED the videos I sent him. Not only did he watch them, but he also had the guts to comment about the fashion & lifestyle of the 80’s and how we spent our time back then. Wlak at least don’t SAY that you watched them! Apparently he didn’t have much to do during the day. Lebanese & their curiosity.
Anyway, I just felt like holding a pencil and scribbling & here’s what came out ๐ Couldn’t possibly let you go to your weekends without a quick post!
Have a lovely weekend my darlings! And here’s Chick Corea’s “Love Castle” from his album “My Spanish Heart”.