“Art expresses the human being. Art makes the human being human.”
Such is the wisdom of Abbas Almosawi, lauded Bahraini abstract painter. These are words that conjure hopeful images of every diverse form by which art has manifested in humanity, in history.
Hailing from the same nation as Almosawi is another artist whose wisdom and willingness to share it knows few bounds; Ali Almail, senior art and genetic biology double major here at Northwestern College. His senior art project, Genetic Composition of Christ, was permanently installed in the DeWitt Science Center on Jan. 18 of this year. It is an image of Christ, based on El Greco’s depiction, made out of the known nitrogenous base sequences of a few genetic predispositions to certain illnesses like cancer and Huntington’s disease common to the Middle East, Jesus’ place of origin, printed on metal. It calls into question the nature of our Savior on the most fundamental level; as a fully human man, was Jesus too predisposed to disease? Did Jesus relate to mankind on a genetic basis? In its description, Almail admits that his art cannot provide those answers, but the questions themselves are full of power and the possibility for humble investigation into the nature of God.
Almail was born in Bahrain to a Bahraini father and Canadian mother and spent much of his childhood bouncing between his domicile in Bahrain and frequent trips to Canada. The school at which his mother worked was associated with the Reformed Church in America, and several faculty and staff were alumni of NW. When none of the schools he visited piqued his interest, he decided on a whim to adhere to his teachers’ advice and enroll at Northwestern College.
Since his youth, Almail has been passionate about art and deeply fascinated by math and hard science. He found a place where the two combined in architecture, and when college began, he realized how they found even greater harmony in human biology, and such a field also gave him a more direct outlet for his love of helping people, hence it became his major. Art remained a passion of his, and he declared it a minor and later a second major. The decision was born out of his realization that in his postgraduate and career future, he would have little dedicated time to honing and receiving professional education in his art. He decided to put in the extra work now as to benefit most from his college experience.
However, after reflecting, Alamil had no regrets in his extra workload and didn’t feel like it took time away from other activities. The reason he gave for this was his circle of friends, those he chooses to spend his time with and the people he finds the most gratification in being with are similarly passionate and dedicated people. We emulate the characters of the people we spend our time with.
Elaborating, he said “If you surround yourself with partiers, you’re going to feel like you’re missing out on a lot more.”
Almail and his friends find quality time to spend with one another, while also understanding each others’ workloads, maybe even combining the two activities by working together.
After graduation, Almail plans to attend medical school and pursue both an M.D. and a Ph.D.
