Rage 469+
LELIA PURKY (@mysticdolphin__perkylelia)
2025
Mixed media art on canvas
This piece, Rage 469+, is not a painting to make people comfortable. It is an eruption of anger and grief about this ongoing genocide and the Zionist war crimes, as well as rage at the world’s continued silence. This piece represents the 469+ days (and counting) of genocide in Gaza. Each treacherous day of Israeli war crimes is etched into the background in unapologetic grief. Each abstract circle, stroke, and color built up upon the others are the layers of grief and rage, and the unbearable unknowing of when this hell will end. This genocide has shown us that humanity has failed with its silence, and its complicity as we witness continued loss and terror that people in Gaza are experiencing at the hands of the IOF. The number is deliberately unfinished— a “+”, because by the time this is read, the number of innocent individuals will have grown. Rage 469+ demands that every individual in Gaza who has been martyred is not a number or a statistic, but a human being. We must not continue to remain silent, while more names are added, more children are buried, and more people who are fighting for their survival resistance every day in Gaza. As the world wants us to feel nothing, we must remember that we must feel every bit of rage, no matter what— and that we must continue to stand up against this genocide in whatever way we can.
*This piece was featured in the art exhibition, Here the Birds’ Journey Begins, on April 26th, 2025.
“There is no room to make people comfortable in complicity.”
My name is Lelia, and I am a disabled, queer artist from Evanston, IL.
My passion for art began when I was a little girl, and it has become both my comfort and my form of resistance. I work primarily in abstract and mixed media, often incorporating found or repurposed materials to reflect resilience, memory, and survival.
As a disabled artist, I center disability pride and human rights in my work—especially Palestinian liberation and decolonial justice. I believe art is one of the most powerful ways to fight back against oppression. Through color, shape, and texture, I speak when the world tries to silence. When I’m not creating, I love to write and read stories that imagine freer futures.