Engineer uses art to string together a livelihood

GAZA－To earn bread for his family, Naim Maarouf, an unemployed, Gaza-based civil engineer, has to make money producing string art.

String art involves using nails and colored threads to form geometric patterns or images on wooden boards. Maarouf usually produces designs that embody Palestinian national figures and legacies.

Maarouf, a 30-year-old father of two, started producing his artworks two months ago in a bid to make ends meet following his unemployment.

The young man came up with the idea of selling his art when he saw the reactions of his family and friends to a likeness of late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat that he made using the technique.

"I was surprised by their reaction. They asked me to produce for them artistic paintings that embody their personalities, as well as pictures that mimic nature," he says.

Maarouf, in addition to making artworks for his friends, also started marketing them through networking sites and participated in several art exhibitions.

"My pictures became popular, and I became known locally in the Gaza Strip through this rare art form," Maarouf says.

Every week, Maarouf usually produces about 40 artworks, the prices of which range from $3 to $150, depending on the size and complexity of the images.

"We may face a difficult life in the Gaza Strip, but it is important to think outside the box and do not give in to those circumstances that make us fall prey to depression and other psychological issues," he says.

Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been put under a tight Israeli blockade after the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) seized the coastal enclave.

A report issued by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor in February found that 1.5 million Gazans live in poverty due to the blockade.

The unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip climbed to 50.2 percent by the end of last year, among the highest in the world, compared to 23.6 percent in 2005, the report says.

Xinhua