Memoir

A life in the work

Salwa Arnous's story, told in her own words — with the record of her art alongside it.

Salwa Arnous smiling in a studio portrait, wearing a white blouse and pearl earrings.
Salwa Arnous
Salwa Arnous outdoors in a wide straw sun hat and sunglasses, smiling at a café table.
Salwa, outdoors

Where it began

[MEMOIR — Salwa's childhood, family and first home, in her own words: the place, the years, what she remembers]

Journeys

[MEMOIR — leaving, arriving, and the places she has lived since]

Becoming an artist

[MEMOIR — when and how she began to make art: teachers, materials, the first works she kept]

Family

[MEMOIR — the people in her life and in her work]

What she hopes people see

[MEMOIR — in her words: what the work is for]

Her story, as it has been recorded

From published articles and the dates of her own photo archive — until she tells it in full above.

  1. JaffaSalwa is born in Jaffa, Palestine. (source)
  2. 1948Her family flees Palestine in the Nakba, first to Beirut and later settling in Cairo. (source)
  3. 2003The earliest photographs in her archive are made: Rebirth of the Nation, Prohibited to See, Peace at Night and others.
  4. 2003At Christmas she travels to Palestine and Israel and meets women who want their stories told — the beginning of Otherwise Occupied. (source)
  5. 2004She makes Altar, a shadow box of children's faces — the only work in the archive that carries its year in its title.
  6. 2005Otherwise Occupied, created with the playwright Dianne Monroe, premieres at Jump-Start Performance Company in San Antonio. The two had worked together before on Lost Recipes. (source)
  7. 2006Her painting exhibit They Uprooted the Palestinians, Now They’ve Uprooted the Olive Trees opens the Uprooted Series connected with the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center. (source)
  8. 2007Otherwise Occupied returns to Jump-Start in a new version (March 9–18). Her painting becomes the cover of Aziz Shihab’s book Does the Land Remember Me? (Syracuse University Press). (source)
  9. 2008She photographs her work and publishes 36 pieces on Flickr. (source)
  10. 2026salwaarnous.com launches, and her work opens the first exhibition of palestinian.gallery. (source)

Theatre

After her journey at Christmas 2003, Salwa asked the playwright Dianne Monroe to help turn the women's stories she had gathered into a play. Otherwise Occupied premiered at Jump-Start in 2005 and returned in 2007 (San Antonio Current). [MEMOIR — her memories of writing and staging it]

Palestine: history and culture