For impressionist painter Moussa Trad, life without art would be “like hell.” To him, art is emotion, and represents pleasure of the soul and the mind. “Where there is art, there can be no evil,” says the artist who has spent most of his life living in the still politically-torn country of Lebanon.

Moussa Michel Trad was born in Zahle, Lebanon, a mountainous town northeast of Beirut in the Bekaa Valley, a land from which many of the world’s artists and poets have emerged throughout history. While most people around the world associate Lebanon with the war-torn images from its three-decade long civil war that began in the mid-1970s, Trad discovered the beauty, hope, and life among the ruins of his beloved country.

He grew up surrounded by books about art, music, poetry, and philosophy. As the son of the famous Lebanese poet Michel Trad, it is no surprise that his own artistic talent appeared at an early age. His father’s beautiful poetry about life and the land they loved inspired Trad to depict many of the scenes described in his father’s poems.

“I was raised in an atmosphere saturated with the high-minded ideals of humanistic philosophy,” says Trad. “My father had the greatest influence on my development as a person, and as an artist.”

Like many young Lebanese students seeking higher education, Trad came to America to study art and other subjects. He attended the University of Massachusetts in Boston, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and business administration. He also studied art in Boston and Montreal, Canada, eventually settling there for a period of time before returning to his beloved Lebanon.

Throughout his life, Trad has shared his love of art and his talent with others by teaching the art of painting at many private schools and institutes. He has painted many subjects, including Lebanese and Canadian landscapes, peasant scenes, flowers, still life, the human form, and portraits. He has exhibited in Lebanon, Canada, and the United States.

Trad’s paintings are all over the world. Most of them are also depicted on a series of printed greeting cards through his private enterprise based in Beirut, Lebanon.

He continues to draw inspiration by walking in nature and observing the beauty of “God’s masterpiece.” Trad enjoys staring and watching the shapes and colors of flowers, trees, clouds, valleys, and mountains to rejoice in experiencing all of his senses and his soul. He has also drawn inspiration from many of his travels around the world. He has visited most of the major art museums throughout Europe and America. He has been most influenced with impressionist painters, including Monet, Renoir, Pissaro, Degas, Corot and Courbet.