Fatima’s Art

Fatima Al-Jaber

My name is Fatima, but most people know me as Toomy. I was born and raised in Qatar my whole life, and recently, in the Fall of 2019, I moved to New York City to study at The New School, Parsons School of Design, majoring in Communication Design. I would consider myself a multidisciplinary artist, beginning my art career in fine arts such as oil painting, graphite drawings, and illustrations. I recently dipped my toes into the world of digital & film photography. Fashion photography has been a big passion of mine, and within my first year at Parsons, I’ve been able to focus my time on honing my skills.

 As a female Arab artist, I feel it’s my duty to break the shell of the single narrative and perspective of what we Middle Eastern and Arab women have been confined to. Many of the themes within my artwork tend to be personal but never deviate from my identity as an Arab woman. I want to use my platform and artwork, especially bringing it outside of just Arab countries to discuss the realities of womanhood in this society and reclaim the identity that is so often created for us.

Hayat-Ha | Her Life

This piece focuses on women empowerment in the Middle East. The background is comprised of an image of my aunt and is a hand-carved linoleum block print. The word “Her Life” in Arabic spray-painted on the right piece and screen printed on the left directly in large lettering across her face numerous times adds emphasis to the importance of the word in correlation to the image. This series was created with the intention to show the power and control Muslim women has on her life, specifically those who wear a headscarf. “Her life” written in Arabic is especially important, as women who are forced to wear the headscarf is a common issue in Arab society. Whether or not a Muslim woman chooses to wear the headscarf is, I believe, her decision. A vibrant neon color palette was chosen for the background and print to add a strong pop of color that captures the attention of the viewer.

Pity Part Editorial

This editorial is part of a larger magazine project. With this project, I wanted to practice my film photography skills especially with lighting and shadows. The model is wearing entirely her clothing brand in all images. 

Babushka Boy

For a class project, I was asked to brainstorm 100 questions I had on fashion. As I was creating my list of questions, I chose a set of ten questions that stood out to me the most and they all had to do with the idea of brand logos and how they distort our perception of the quality of the products we buy.  In response to my ten questions, I wanted to create my own Babushka a trend that rose from social media as first seen on A$AP Rocky. I also believe he’s the one that began this wave of men in babushka’s, a common accessory in woman’s fashion. The design was made through Adobe Photoshop and printed on a silk charmeuse scarf.

WHY BE RACIST, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC OR TRANSPHOBIC WHEN U COULD JUST BE QUIET?

In a repressive society where thinking is close-minded and oppressive, I have chosen to show my skills drawing realism in this portrait of the artist, Frank Ocean, wearing a shirt depicting the words “WHY BE RACIST, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC OR TRANSPHOBIC WHEN U COULD JUST BE QUIET?” in simple lettering. The queer icon uses his platform to voice his opinion and raise awareness about social justice issues by wearing this shirt during his performances. With the use of white charcoal, graphite, and white ink, I drew this image of him based on a photograph from a powerful performance in which he wore this shirt. I specifically chose an image of him from the side as the message of the shirt is not as legible due to the folds, thus making only certain words like “WHY BE RACIST” and “QUIET” stand out making the message of the entire piece more subtle.

You can find Fatima’s website here. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.