Okay, by popular demand. Here's the logo story.
This is a classic Tunisian door. In exactly the color of blue that you will see in Tunisia. Back in the 1990s I was commuting between my home in La Marsa, a suburb of Tunis, and Chicago, where I was a Ph.D. student in East Asian Languages. My husband was a student at an Arabic language institute in Sidi Bou Said, the community right next door to La Marsa. These doors were everywhere, as well as stunning white walls and shocking fuchsia bougainvillea. I've always had bougainvillea plants in pots on my lanai as a child growing up in Honolulu, but these beautiful flowers had new meaning for me in Tunisia, where they grew so profusely, they seemed to be alive, stepping out of the confines of the walled gardens where they were rooted.
I decided to bring this bit of my life into my new logo for this website, as I dedicate myself to the international and multicultural experience that I've grown to love. I love being American, because it means this isn't weird. It's not only normal, it's how things are.
I had to think for a bit about whether this logo was really “me,” since I'm not Tunisian, an Arab, or even the one who was studying in Tunisia in the first place. But you know, I sometimes catch myself in denial about who I am. I'm the sum total of all of my experiences. Picking, choosing, and deleting this or that–it isn't real. And I'm hoping that my mishmash is real.
So the Tunisian door it is. Maybe next year I'll do an Edo print, but right now, it's the Tunisian door for me.
