This is part of a body of work I created at an artist colony in Nebraska after living in Morocco. The works are my attempt to comprehend some of my experiences there and integrate them into my world and life view. This painting is an exploration of place and its affect on identity. In Morocco almost every young person wants to be elsewhere - France, the U.S., Spain - but at the same time are unflinchingly proud to be Moroccan. Yet I noticed that the Moroccan culture of today is very changed from even a generation ago, which begs the question of exactly what culture do the youth embody, and what will they learn by living in another? All of my works contain imperfections; it is my way of building intimacy between the viewer and my self - a sort of inside joke as well as a reminder that these works are created by a fallible human being.