On the blank walls and concrete pedestals of Baghdad, artist Esam Pasha al-Azzawy sees ripe opportunity.
These spaces, where Saddam Hussein's outsized and ubiquitous likenesses long loomed, should become the places for a new kind of expression - art for art's sake, Mr. Azzawy says.
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Alone in his cramped studio, Azzawy drowned out the shuddering and explosions with Mozart's "Requiem" in the mornings, and Beethoven's "Emperor" concerto in the afternoons, played over and over.

"It was me, my colors, and my music," says the thickly bearded painter, who jokes about his resemblance to the former Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Omar.

In two intense, eight-hour sessions, just hours before American forces entered the Iraqi capital, he finished what he considers his masterpiece from those days of war - "Baghdad," an image of a woman in deep reds and dark hues.

It is an expression of the spirit, the potential, and the uncertainty in the city Azzawy so loves.

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Echoing many Iraqis, Azzawy expresses gratitude to US forces for toppling the dictator, but warns that future rule should be left to Iraqis. "Friend or not, [US troops] should keep away from governing Iraq," he says.

"Humans are afraid of the unknown," Azzawy muses. "I'm always optimistic, so I have hope. But hoping is not enough. We must act, and take it [government] out of the hands of the Americans before it is too late."

The artists says that, being apolitical, he never had difficulty with the former regime. In fact, Azzawy - who is also a former Iraqi national judo champion - served as a soldier on the "active" northern front, fighting Kurdish militiamen in the late 1990s. But he rarely could welcome foreign visitors to his studio in the past without raising official eyebrows. And he always chafed at the restrictions. After an earlier meeting with me , just for a chat, he was pulled aside by a government minder and told that it was illegal to talk to foreigners.

» Artist eyes Iraq's public canvases | csmonitor.com