Aida Schneider Biography Biography  |  Portfolio The Middle Eastern city where I grew up was the third to be built on that site. Modern amenities and conveniences were available — we kept our yoghurt in a refrigerator and drove our car on (mostly) paved streets. Yet daily customs and practices had remained unchanged through the centuries: peddlers relied on donkeys (or their own heads) to carry their wares. Milk was sometimes sold by leading a cow through residential streets. Downtown, I’d come across a water seller carrying an ornate aluminum container on his back and serving his clientele from four or five glasses. Field trips to three thousand year old ruins filled me with wonder as did my father’s collections of old manuscripts, coins and tapestries. Although I’ve lived most of my adult life in this country, a lot of my work draws on that early influence by using symbols reminiscent of ancient writing. Several layers of pigment — layers of civilizations perhaps — serve to hide and reveal what is underneath. This ambiguity invites the viewer’s interpretation and engages their imagination.