Algeria - Harraga

I did this little watercolor sketch in 2009, after seeing a very sad photo on the Internet of the bloated body of a young man who had drowned while trying to make the hazardous sea passage from North Africa to Europe. This was an all-too-common occurrence; in Algeria those desperate individuals who dared the trip were called "Harraga", an Algerian slang term meaning "they who have burned everything" and left their country behind. Harraga is also the name of a 2005 novel, in French, by the Algerian artist and social critic Boualem Sansal, whom I am proud to count a friend. In this watercolor sketch, I painted only the remains, taking out all background. Artists will likely notice that his left arm is too short; that is because it was partially submerged.

This painting was matted in dark blue and framed to 12 1/2" x 15" by Dar El Kenz, Algiers.