Jubilation reigns today on the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, and countless other Egyptian cities in the wake of Hosni Mubarak's announcement that he is giving in to people power, surrendering the presidency after 30 years of dictatorial rule. The 18 days of mass protests that shook the Mubarak regime have cost hundreds of lives, but have also raised the hopes of the Egyptian people. The revolution has unleashed not only a torrent of political debate, but the creativity of many ordinary Egyptians in Tahrir Square and throughout the nation who have thrown themselves into dreaming — and fighting for — a better world.

What comes next is anyone's guess, but New York-based Egyptian artist Nadir Sadek, at least, offered his opinion in an ARTINFO Op-Ed that the toppling of the dictator held the potential to give fresh life to the country's artists, who have lived under the shadow of repression long enough to learn self-censorship.

Egyptian artists, professional and self-taught alike, have been among those in the streets and have contributed their voices to the uprising. Some, like Ahmed Basiouni, have been among the causalities.

"I think the way artists participated at first was pretty much the same as everybody else: we took to the streets and chanted the fall of Mubarak," the Cairo-based designer and artist who goes by the name Ganzeer wrote to ARTINFO last week, "When Mubarak managed to create a division between Egyptian people, thanks to the media blackout, government lies, and much psychological warfare unleashed on the Egyptian people, anti-Mubarak musicians started recording some songs and poetry and uploading them onto Youtube."

Ganzeer himself attempted to help the protests by designing anti-Mubarak graphics for signs, stickers, and stencils: "Instead of always ending up at the protests unprepared, with mediocre hand-scrawled signs, I decided to sit down and design a few I would like to use," he writes on his Web site, where he posted images of the works.

In the last days, Ganzeer has turned to creating a series of portraits of the "martyrs" of the Egyptian uprising — striking red, yellow, and black works highlighting the faces of some of the fallen. His moving description of these portraits is worth quoting in full, and is all the more significant given today's earth-shaking events:

"Dirty politics and power struggles aside, there are innocent people who died over the course of Egypt's current revolution. These people died because they could see something most of us could not see. They died because they could see Egypt soaring high in a place of dignity and respect. They could see Egypt become something none of us thought possible. They died for me, they died for you, for our grandparents, and for our children. True heroes, ready to fight a corrupt regime with all its soldiers, guns, and ammo with nothing more than their voices and willpower."

Ganzeer concludes, "These heroes are the Golden Eagles of the Egyptian revolution."

Click on the slide show at the left to see images of Ganzeer's images from the Egyptian revolution.