Wafaa Bilal Lecture Response

QOUTE:
In the lecture he said somthing I could not write word for word (because I write slow) but really struck me.
" Our willingness as a artist is take stand and have courage."  Which I interpreted it as him saying "As artist's we have to have the will, and the courage, to take a stand for our work no matter what."
It caught my interest because it is true.  As artists sometimes we are so afraid to make work that will upset people sometimes.  But our jobs as artists is to make work we are passionate about and we believe in.  People become artist knowing there is a risk of being judged or critiqued harshly.  It should be reason why we wanted to become one in the beginning.  I really liked Wafaa's work because he embraced this very strongly in all his work and probably have made some of the most heavily political work I have seen in a long time.  He truly did have to take a strong stand and have a huge amount of courage for all of his work or he would not have made it.

Three words: 
1) Pain
2) Risk
3)Courage

What Interested Me:
Wafaa Bilal amount of courage he had in his work interested me the most.  I was very impressed to how much he put himself at risk in his work whether it was his art that put him at risk or the people that were angered at what he made.  I am amazed at how he was willing to be water boarded for the sake of art and for educating otheres about how the process really worked.  Someone asked him at the lecture if he made his work about his guilt for his family members who had died he responded saying no in which I was amazed by because that is what I thought all of his art was about.  He said he put himself into a place with his art in which he would undergo pain under the notion that pain is transfered to the audience.  He wants America and the world to see and possibly get a glimpse of the pain those we do not think about that were in or affected by the war go through.  He has a lot of courage doing this but I highly respect him for it.  America and the world needs see views from everyone on everyside that are in or affected by the work. I hope I have the amount of courage he does in his work with mine one day.

ANSWER's TO MY QUESTIONS
1) What is your reasoning in making art that involves pain?  Ive noticed you have couple series that have involved different levels of pain in order to make the art.
ANSWER:  His answer was that he involved pain in his work knowing that the pain he would put himself in for his work would transfer to his audience.

2)How did you come about you idea for your live performance art involving getting tattooed.
ANSWER: I did not get a answer for this but I believe because it tied into his theme of pain (emotional and physical) that went with his other works.

 This was my favorite work because I liked his idea of invisibility but also being there representing those Iraq's who have died without anyone knowing they exsisted.

I believe I have no questions for the artist at least not for now.