I had the pleasure of talking to the Clackamas Print, the magazine and online publication produced by the journalism department at Clackamas Community College. We talked about my exhibit When the World Looks Away, which examines the horrors of war.
Enjoy this short video, filmed and edited by Austin Barrett, of the Clackamas Print. It gets right to the heart of this series of paintings.
Please take a look at this interview that delves into my series about confronting the violence and conflict in Gaza and around the world.
Campus Exhibit Examines War
The Clackamas Print
February 4, 2026
By Gabriel Elmosleh, Co-Editor-In-Chief
Clackamas Community College hosted Sam Marroquin’s exhibit, “When the World Looks Away” this past month in the Alexander Gallery at the Niemeyer Center. Marroquin’s work, featuring 105 paintings, sought to showcase the suffering within the Gaza strip.
The Clackamas Print visited the gallery, and interviewed Marroquin to learn about the creation of the exhibit.
Art from the exhibit, when the world looks away. Photo from Carlos Rodriguez-Picazo
The Clackamas Print: So obviously, this is a rather controversial topic. What kind of public perception have you received since the exhibit opened?
Sam Marroquin: I’ve actually gotten a really good reception to this. I had one review done, and it was very favorable. I know that, I mean, just by nature of things that are going on in the world, there is more than one side to the story. It’s often important to look at both sides, and take that into consideration. In this series, it is largely looking at this conflict from a Palestinian perspective. However, I really want to focus on humanity and really just get to the heart of what’s going on. How are these people being harmed? What’s going on? How are they living? These images, I really feel, could represent war in almost any place [where war is] going on in the world right now. They could be in Sudan, they could be in Iran, It could be in Yemen.There’s conflicts all over the world and disasters like this, people, innocent people being harmed.
TCP: Who would you say is your target audience?
Marroquin: Well, I think anyone. I mean, here we are at the college, I would say college students in particular for this show. I would hope that all students would come in and take a look at [the show] and hopefully it would either change or reinforce their perspective about war.
TCP: I just saw images that take place in Palestine, and some images are of protests here in the U.S.. Can you talk about why you chose to include protest images?
Marroquin: I included protest images because I wanted to show what’s going on around the world. This one is in America, Columbia University, to show that there is support for the Palestinian cause in the U.S., and because it is going on right now, it’s something that’s happening.
A student looks at the art in the exihibit. Photo by Mady Mursean.TCP:
TCP: Over the years, a lot of your work has been focused on the issues of the world and I was wondering in what ways, if any, has your perspective evolved on the conflict in general, during the process of making these pieces?
Marroquin: I don’t think that my general overview has changed. I’ve always had a sense that war is not a good action and it’s not a good act. Usually our governments are acting not in the people’s best interests when they go and wage war on other countries. But I think maybe my knowledge and understanding of the world has probably grown and blossomed over the years as I’ve been working with the subject.
TCP: Are there any intersectional topics that you strive to invoke in your pieces?
Marroquin: Sure, my artwork really stems from wanting to uncover the truth. I want to explore and uncover the truth, especially things that are not often looked at or thought about in the mainstream media.
TCP: With the state of the country and our leadership, I’m wondering, how do you feel about the future of artists, and the rights you have to create art?
Marroquin: It’s hard to tell where we’re going. In terms of political climate and freedom of speech. That is a big issue that I am looking at in my artwork as well as they’re targeting journalists and killing them just for telling the truth. So knowing that this art explores the truth in particular, I am concerned about the future of our freedom of speech.
TCP: It seems like it’ll be really hard to spend time with these images. How are you able to do it? And do you have to have a process of decompression to step away?
Marroquin: Yeah, I do step away sometimes. I’m not constantly doing this every day all the time, because it does take an emotional toll on me. I do like to do other things and get outside of this and think about nothing that’s going on in the news, maybe for short periods of time here and there. I like to get out. I go hiking or camping. But I also think that by making these paintings, the process of doing it is in a way, a little bit healing to me. Maybe not so much healing, but it helps me process what is going on in the world around us and the atrocities that are happening.
