My name is Arue/ariam, and I am from British Columbia, Canada. I was born in Eritrea and spent most of my life migrating from country to country.

I painted most of my childhood memories of Asmara, to cope with the loss of not having home, and through that began my facination with painting our culture and history. This painting is one of four Photographs I have reimagined as Renaissance Heavenly bodies. The inspiration behind picking these 4 photographs is to highlight the meaning of the flag, brief history of the war prior to 1991, to get a glimpse of the strength of Eritrean people. The reason I decided to paint them now in this manner is because I want Eritreans to remember why we are extremely proud and lucky to be here. God sent angels to protect and fight for us. To estimate the chances of getting our identity and existing in the world the way we do was made possible by these mortal yet immoral tegadelti and community members. To remember them now in this way is to remind Eritreans our pride is as strong as it is or should be because we would not be here if it wasn’t for them. And for me quite literally. I owe