"I was born in London, England, in 1976 and went to elementary school in Germany. We first returned to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s. I say first here, because it was a first for all of us, including my Saudi Arabian father and my Jordanian mother who up until that point had lived in Jordan, Egypt and England. Saudi was a change for all of us. My younger sister Russia and I didn't even speak the Arabic language. It was definitely interesting. I was enrolled in fourth grade at a private school for girls — a big change, coming from the public schooling system in Germany and not knowing what was said or how to write or anything else for that matter. Somehow we managed — in fact with flying colors."
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I would be lying if I said growing up in Saudi Arabia was a strange and difficult life. I look upon those days fondly. I wasn't aware of the politics of our time, our standing as a country or how our oil and religion affected the way we were perceived by the rest of the world. It was great growing up there."
"I left for the University of Vienna in Austria in '95. Many of my friends were Saudi Arabian. Many of them weren't allowed to study abroad."
"My favorite place is a tie: London and Vienna. The place I would love to visit and maybe stay for a while: Tokyo."
"It was at the suggestion of my aunt who had lived in Wichita for 20 years that I first came here in 1997. I studied graphic design at Wichita State and got involved in the city's arts community. I met many painters, writers and musicians — and began my own creative pursuits. After graduating from WSU in 1999, I lived in Chicago and taught art for a while, but returned to Wichita, where I'm now a graphic designer at LineSight, a web hosting and branding company based in Old Town."
"My life, so far, could be represented by five items. A childhood photo album my mum compiled of our time in England and Germany, a copy of the poem "Joy and Sorrow" by Kahlil Gibran, my music collection — though not vast, I chose it very carefully and it's taken years to compile. It is very much the soundtrack to my life. A silver ring my brother gave me in Saudi Arabia before I left for Europe and a painting given to me in Wichita by Elizabeth Stevenson."
"If I were to visit Saudi Arabia today, I think the most astonishing change of all would be the advancement of women in the work force."
"There's much to be said in life about knowing rhythm and keeping rhythm. That is what playing the drums provides me with. Right now, my favorite Wichita night spot is my studio, because that is where my drums live."
"I would say 'fashion' or 'style' is truly a combination of several things, clothing being least important of all. It is one's personality coupled with their opinions and how they carry themselves in given situations."
"It's always nice to make good first impressions and that, sadly, happens through superficial and physical appearance in our culture. But an outfit, as telling as it might be, does not the person make."
"Lately, I've been designing with things that aren't meant to be used as everyday fabrics. For instance, I've been working with peacock feathers and synthetic materials like tent fabric."
"I do have many creative endeavors, and I pursue the study of humanities, the collective knowledge of a culture and its history, politics, sciences, literature, religion and art — and how all these things have impacted one another since the dawn of time."
"As for a difference between the academic and the creative — there is none. I feel that what feeds the mind also inspires it."
"The Liquid Alphabet began in 2001 as a creative project of mine aiming at translating the English alphabet into sound, using liquid — water in this case — as the medium. Each letter has its own measurement in a wine glass, and each measurement corresponds to a sound."
"What I like best about the United States is the potential. The thing that I like the least is the politics."
