Feature: Palestinian painter hopes to ease mental problems through arts

Kholoud Desoky, a 23-year-old artist from the Gaza Strip, wishes she could start a program of art therapy to help treat psychological disorders, especially with children who are living tough times in the besieged enclave, using her unique talent of drawing with cosmetics.

"Art can be used in healing many diseases," Desoky said at her home in the impoverished town of Khan Younis. "Science has proved that some colors do heal some diseases."

Graduated in 2014 from Gaza's Al-Aqsa University majoring in fine arts, Desoky believes that she can help people explore and express themselves truthfully through art.

"People can find release from irresistible emotions, crises or trauma through art," she said.

Israel has maintained a tight siege on Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement forcibly seized the coastal enclave after fierce fighting with forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

In recent years, Israel has launched three wide-scale military operations in the Gaza Strip -- one in late 2008, another in 2012 and the latest one was in the summer of last year which killed about 2,100 Palestinians.

Desoky said she has found a unique way of drawing, using makeup materials, the first to employ this method in the Palestinian territories.

"Cosmetics are not only used in showing women's beauty, but also can be used in drawing beautiful portraits like this one," she said, pointing at one of her latest works, a portrait of a Puerto Rican woman.

"I decided to make a real change in the pattern of arts in Palestine," said Desoky, using an eyeliner pencil to sketch the boundaries of eyes in a portrait.

She uses cosmetics such as eye shadow, sponges, different kinds of powders, eyeliners, mascara and brushes of different sizes.

Cosmetics products have unique colors that are good for portrait painting, she said. "Sometimes it is hard to find the same colors in regular painting colors."

Starting painting at the age of four, Desoky has participated in 11 exhibitions in the Gaza Strip and received many awards.

Desoky said she has a dream to have her own studio as well as continuing her higher education so that she would be better equipped to use fine arts to treat people, especially traumatized Gazan children.

The young Gaza artist said she has been encouraged by her parents and her family along the way.

"My daughter discovered that using cosmetic materials in painting gives the portrait a special beauty," said her father, Mohamed Desoky, adding that cosmetics are easier to use and cheaper than regular painting colors.

Mohamed lamented that more than eight years of the Israeli siege on Gaza has prevented his daughter from traveling abroad and taking part in international exhibitions.

"If there were no siege, my daughter could have met famous and important artists from all over the world," he said. Endit