Saad Hindal sees the world through color. 

He sees green faces with blue almond-shaped eyes. He sees yellow faces with triangular noses and brown lips. He sees orange faces framed by black braids and blue faces with red lips and black eyes. He sees fish, and cats and birds that come alive with bright colors on his canvas. 

His vision of Concord and its people can be seen on the walls inside the Bank of New Hampshire Stage. He was asked by the Capitol Center for the Arts to paint a Concord-inspired mural that was completed last week.

“Concord is a very welcoming city and it feels like we’re not far from home here,” Hindal said. “At the beginning, we were scared and hesitated about even getting to know people and getting close to people but we’ve met some good people and actually learned we can communicate.”

An abstract artist from Iraq, Hindal is one of many immigrants who make up Concord’s diverse population and uses his art to express his love for the city he now calls home. 

Strewn throughout his art studio on Merrimack Street are his many portraits of Concord – some illustrating the cats and the faces of the city in hues of greens, blues and oranges while others detail his former life in Baghdad, Syria and Egypt, first as a citizen and then as a refugee. 

The scenes are a stark contrast to the U.S. war that ravaged Iraq and forced Hindal, his wife and their four children to flee their home country in 2006. The country the family grew up in, abundant in farmland and economic development, was gutted by crime, violence and conflict.

Before the war began in 2003, Hindal was part of the Iraqi army where he was a practicing artist, a branch of the military that doesn’t exist in the United States. Hindal used his skills to paint maps of Iraq and blueprints of towns and buildings he hoped to develop. Recreationally, he painted portraits of Saddam Hussein, the country’s dictator who was killed in 2006, and his memories of Baghdad.

Life was passable for the family until their oldest son, then 14, was kidnapped and held hostage for 32 days. The family gave their life savings for his return. Now 30, Hussein Hindal sat across from his father, translating his words from Arabic to English, as they discussed what it was like for the family.

“He doesn’t like to talk about it, it’s too hard,” Hussein said, shrugging off his experience. “It was a lot for them, they were scared the whole time.”

Kidnapping in Iraq was common at the time. Hindal, like so many others that held a good financial standing in Iraq at the time, was targeted.

The family fled to Syria for refuge where they lived for a couple of months before furthering their asylum to Egypt, which took refugees more seriously and helped them immigrate to the United States.

After arriving in Concord, the kids were placed in school, taught English and integrated into the American lifestyle.

“We’ve been here for 15 years now and this is the longest we have ever stayed anywhere, even back home,” Hussein said.

As an artist, Hindal makes his income from selling his paintings. Taking from his lived experiences, he incorporates bright colors and hidden storylines into his artwork, like a lover beckoning to his mistress, a thief hanging from a window and a couple getting married. He has a fondness for love stories, cats, and Concord, he said. Often, when strolling through the streets, he stops to observe and study the neighborhood cats.

The Monitor first profiled Hindal in 2018.

“Now it feels like our country and we want to protect it, too,” Hussein said. “He goes to Egypt every year and they don’t treat him like an Iraqi anymore, they treat him like an American because  we have lived here for so long and he’s proud of it, too.”

This interview was translated by Hussein Hindal.

Editor’s note: All this week, the Monitor will publish a series of profiles to highlight the city’s growing community diversity in advance of Concord’s Multicultural Festival, held Sunday, Sept. 24 at Keach Park from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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