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Linda Dalal Sawaya is an artist, illustrator, designer, writer, teacher, cook, and gardener. Her work has appeared in international publications and has been exhibited in New York, California, Oregon, and Washington. She has a degree in Environmental Design from UCLA. She is the youngest daughter of Lebanese immigrants, who both came to the US from Douma, Lebanon. Sawaya's art is influenced by her rich cultural heritage, which is reflected in her colorful palette and her subject matter.

Sawaya worked for many years as a graphic designer before she began to paint. Her earliest art forms were crafts taught to her by her mother and grandmother. She got her first camera for her birthday at the age of 10, a Brownie Starflash. Sawaya has worked in ceramics, photography, and now Linda works in a variety of media—including watercolor, acrylic, oils, egg tempera, ceramics, photography, mosaic, and collage, which reflect her diverse interests and allows her to express herself appropriately to the theme, content, and intention of her work. She has worked on many Middle East and world peace issues as a designer and an activist.

Her cookbook Alice's Kitchen: Traditional Lebanese Cooking, a tribute to her beloved mother, Alice and grandmother Dalal, has become a popular and cherished reference book for immigrant family children, whose mothers knew how to cook the fabulous Lebanese dishes carried on from generation to generation without measuring! And it is well-loved by those who only know Lebanese food from the many restaurants the immigrants opened world-wide that has made our healthy and scrumptious Lebanese food so popular internationally. Alice's Kitchen has been a work of love and a blessing. Sahtein!

exhibitions
2010 • Canvassing Peace, AFSC Friends Gallery, 634 S. Spring St., Los Angeles • JUST PEACE and other peace t-shirts designed by Sawaya are on display for 6 months in group show focused on art for peace, January through August 2010.
2009 • Incarnation Icons, Cloisters Gallery, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Portland, Oregon November through January 2010.
2007 • One person exhibiton of paintings on clay at Washington State University campus in Vancouver, Washington.
2006 • Collage-A-matics Class Exhibition! • Linda curated an exhibition of the collage-A-matics—a group show of fifteen people who attended her Monday night collage class. Washington State University campus in Vancouver, Washington.
2006 • March 4 - April 23, 2006 • Collins Gallery, Multnomah County Library, Portland, Oregon paintings from The Little Ant/La Hormiga Chiquita were exhibited at the Children's Illustration Art Exhibition, Drawn from Childhood
2004 • Beaverton Arts Commission, Beaverton, June 2004 • paintings and prints in juried group exhibition
2002 • Fetterly Art Gallery, Vallejo, California July-August 2002 • Invitational group exhibition
2001 • Open Studios, Benicia, California
2000 • Open Studios, Vallejo, California
1997 • Gresham City Hall Visual Arts Gallery, June-July 1997 • “One People” group art exhibition
1995 • Vita Gallery, Portland, December 1995Exhibition of original paintings from two children’s books
How to Get Famous in Brooklyn and The Little Ant
• New York Society of Illustrators, NY, November 1995 • “The Original Art” Show; juried exhibition of children’s book illustration
How to Get Famous in Brooklyn
• Beaverton Arts Commission, Beaverton, June 1995 • paintings and photographs in juried group exhibition
1994 • Third World Art Exchange, Los Angeles, March–Sept. Acrylic paintings on clay
• Pacific Arts Photography Gallery, Portland—color photographs
1993 • Buckley Center Gallery, U. of Portland, Sept., group show
• Hoffman Gallery, Oregon School of Arts & Crafts, Portland, May. Juried Student exhibition
• Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, May, “Diversity for the 90’s” multicultural group exhibit
1992 • Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, Portland, October • We Speak Mural project: a 14-panel multicultural mural: the impacts of the Quincentennary of Columbus on minorities: Design and painting of a panel on Arab-Americans and racism in the U.S. and school presentations re my panel on the Arab-American experience
• Oregon Women in the Arts, Portland, Oct. • multi-media evening celebration of 50 Oregon artists
• Culture Shock Gallery, Portland, March • “Visionary Women–21 Multicultural Artists”, group exhibition, paintings
1991 • de nada gallery, Portland, September • One-person photographic exhibition of Mexican fishing boats, color prints

publications—selected list

• Saudi Aramco World Magazine, 2009/2010, "Memories of a Lebanese Garden" cover art illustrated by Linda Dalal Sawaya in 1997 featured on 2010 Six Decades Calendar.
• The Heirloom Gardener Magazine , Spring 2009, Linda was interviewed for an article on Lebanese kitchen gardens with recipes from Alice's Kitchen.
• Encyclopedia of Arab American Artists, 2008, one of 100 artists represented in this important compendium of artists in the US.
• Alice’s Kitchen: Traditional Lebanese Cooking/The Sawaya-Ganamey Family Lebanese Cookbook
wrote, edited, illustrated and published Lebanese family recipes, 1997, 2005, excerpted in Aramco World Magazine, February, 1997
• The Herb Companion, 1999, magazine article illustrated and written by Linda Dalal Sawaya on Lebanese herbs.
• The Space Between Our Footsteps, Simon & Schuster, 1998 • painting included in this anthology of art and poems from the Middle East.
• Aramco World Magazine, 1997 • Memories of a Lebanese Garden, excerpted from Alice's Kitchen, written and illustrated by Linda.
• The Little Ant/La Hormiga Chiquita, 1995, Bi-lingual children's book illustrated by Linda Dalal Sawaya, published by Rizzoli International, NY.
• How to Get Famous in Brooklyn, 1995, Children's book illustrated by Linda Dalal Sawaya, published by Simon & Schuster, NY.