I have decided to start with Morocco and work my way, counterclockwise, around the continent. I met Hamid Kachmar (1969- ) in 1999, then a new arrival in the States. He had come in search of expanding the scope of his art and I was fortunate enough to observe him working. I watched as Berber symbols from rugs that his mother once wove, tattoos from women’s faces and hands, African motifs, and universal symbols appeared on his canvases. The ever present eye of his mother, a very special symbol of good luck as she had been blinded in her other eye, appears in most of Hamid’s creations. Symbols on symbols, around symbols; sand, string, cloth and tissue paper all combined and painted with a palette of natural pigments. In Family Life there seems to be a tent stretched north, east, west and south over the middle portion, a protection if you will, while in Alliance (or Marriage), the two entities are tied together in union by the binding lines in the middle. In Portrait of My Mother, Hamid pays homage to his beloved mother who influenced him so significantly. In a less detailed fashion than his other two paintings, he has abstracted the most important parts of her essence in a simple yet dynamic juxtaposition of shapes and symbols. On the upper left we see his mother’s chin with the significant three tattooed dots facing upward; in the middle her henna painted index finger which was so instrumental to her weaving, and on the right, one of her rugs. The medium circle is his mother’s eye with which she views the world (larger circle), while the smaller circle is the eye that does not see. One is left to ponder whether the large round circle is indeed the world or another face of his mother with the reappearing three dots on the chin looking out to the world. All Hamid’s works are painted in rich earth tones and are filled with meaningful and decorative symbols.