Featured artist Mona Kadah explores identity, heritage through watercolor at Redlands Art Association

“My art, especially abstracts, needs a story. When people know the story, it resonates and it clicks,” said Mona Kadah, the upcoming featured artist at the Redlands Art Association.

Her new show Rooted in Resilience is a powerful display of storytelling through art, her artwork reflects a deep connection to place and identity. “My art is authentic, uncensored. My art is my story,” Kadah said and added, “Music and art are languages on their own.”

Growing up in Damascus, Syria, Kadah would copy pages from a German craft magazine for seamstresses cover to cover and gift her art to her family and friends. During her high school years she studied and trained in Damascene art forms such as Arabesque, gesso woodwork and “plant motifs, kind of like the Persian rug designs,” she said. “Intricate art was my favorite.”

In 1998, Kadah immigrated to the US. While living in San Diego, Kadah graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, a Master’s degree in International Business and a certificate in interpreting. Today she works part-time as an interpreter. “The demands of immigrating were overwhelming,” she said. That’s why she worked and studied hard. “My goal was to pay the bills and pay for my master’s degree,” she said.

Kadah returned to her art in 2018 by picking up watercolor while raising her family. At first, she took art classes in Coachella Valley with Karin Harris of the Coachella Valley Watercolor Societies, of which Kadah is a member. When her family moved to Redlands in 2020, she joined the Redlands Art Association. She has also studied with artists Holly Warner and Martha Cowan.

Her artwork has been on display at La Quinta Art Studio and galleries in Coachella, Yucaipa, Redlands and Loma Linda. She participated in the juried art show ‘Art for Heaven’s Sake’ in Redlands last year. Her work has received multiple awards, including First Place at the Coachella Valley Watercolor Society, the Demonstrator’s Choice Award, Second Place at the Yucaipa Valley Art Association’s Spring Show and recently a First Place at the Annual Yucaipa Valley Music & Art Festival with her painting Poppies in Palestine. It is a painting of poppies surrounded by barbed wire.

“Poppies in Palestine was not supposed to be a series,” Kadah said and yet that is what it became. “When people see a poppy piece, they resonate so much with it,” she said, which surprised her.

Two of her poppies-paintings have been sold in Redlands. Another is currently on display in the Loma Linda City Hall. Because of the series, Kadah gave an art presentation at UC Riverside in January, and one of the paintings is now displayed at the Middle Eastern Student Association. Another painting, Habiba, is inspired from a phone call between a girl named Habiba telling her aunt why she wants to stay in Reza, Palestine.

“I am a Palestinian Syrian living in diaspora, I am also an immigrant and an American,” she said, “I am learning about my heritage through my art.”

She added, “Daily news overseas is making me nostalgic and really appreciative of the art I lived around in Damascus,” she said. “Damascus is the oldest inhabited city in the world. They shoved it down our throats, I grew up around it. But now I’m just mesmerized by that.”

Kadah describes her style as “loose and intentional" and said she’s begun to paint more intuitively. “You just let yourself free and it’s fine.” Today, she will rework an image into her interpretation of it, “I like that better than the other one.”

She expressed gratitude for the opportunities she has gotten there with workshops, a place to show her artwork and now to be the featured artist. “It’s a really good sense of community,” she said of the Redlands Art Association.

Kadah’s featured show includes abstract interpretations of Arabic words, California landscapes, Redlands scenery and flowers from her garden are motifs displayed.

At the show there will be original artwork, limited edition prints and hand-crafted greeting cards. You can meet artist Mona Kadah at the Open House event this Saturday May 10 from 1 to 4 p.m.

About Mona Kadah

Follow artist Monah Kadah’s on Instagram: @monakadahart

Artist statement: “My work is a reflection of memory, place and identity – a dialogue between the landscapes around me and the heritage within me. Through watercolor’s delicate yet bold nature, I seek to capture both fleeting moments and enduring roots, allowing intuition, culture and nature to guide each brushstroke.”

About the Redlands Art Association

Address: 215 E State St, Redlands CA 92373.

RAA website: redlands-art.org

RAA social media:  facebook.com/RedlandsArtAssociation and @redlandsartassociation on Instagram.

Opening hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays closed.

Featured artist show by artist Mona Kadah runs from May 10 to June 6.