"I have gone through three phases in my artistic development, they are abstract, landscapes, and calligraphic. I have lived these phases at times separately and at others blend together. I have been moving between the three styles effortlessly; sometimes working with two simultaneously and at other times concentrating only on one. At times two styles would converge to become one, such as the calligraphic and abstract styles or landscapes and abstraction; at others they would each emerge separately.

In the 1960s and 1970s I was totally devoted to abstraction, colour meant everything to me. It was a language that I had just discovered and wanted to celebrate it all the time. My early abstracts are explosions of contrasting and matching colours. On the other hand, whenever I encountered a crisis I would immediately revert to calligraphy; somehow I felt that all images fell short of interpreting what I wanted to say and only through words could I express my thoughts. [...]"

"In the 1980s I moved to the desert, the last symbol of purity for mankind and the indomitable part of this planet that man could not triumph over. every part of that barren expanse held for me an unending allure that I wanted to record for the world to see. My desert period will never end; no mater how far I wander I always come back to it. [...]"

"When the invasion of Kuwait took place in 1990, I was devastated by the sheer betrayal of the act itself and its overwhelming consequences. To me it was Karbala' all over and poetry seeped into my calligraphic compositions and continues to do so. I consider my Karbala' period a milestone in my artistic development as it opened new visas for my work, whose effect carries on to the present."

- Excerpts by Wijdan
Wijdan - Three Phases ... Four decades, published by Darat al Funun - The Khalid Shoman Foundation, 2003

Wijdan is the founder of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in 1980.