I am an interdisciplinary artist and art educator. My creative process involves experimenting with art forms of photography, illustration, painting, ceramic sculpture, and calligraphy as a way to convey my own journey of existentialism, immigrant trauma, sexual trauma, and gender politics through sarcasm and a touch of whimsy. The journey began with photography as a teenager. My goal in those early days was to capture the details of my transformation as a teenager as well as my family’s new life in America. Photography became the means to collect our memories as new arrivals.

Photography and then illustration became early tools of socially surviving the immigration from Iran to Minnesota. I tried to navigate this interregnum (where I was simultaneously losing my native Farsi and not quite understanding English yet) through photography and drawing; mediums that became a universal language. I continued to work on other traditional art techniques like calligraphy and ceramics. Only in the last 5 years have I found my voice by synthesizing these traditional techniques to create abstract and conceptual art that mirrored my emotions. Traditional calligraphy became figurative art forms composed of calligraphy; traditional photography became chemically treated photos that reflected emotion beyond the photograph; applied art ceramics will soon become ceramic sculptures with traditional Iranian motifs and details.

My work is a reflection of my family’s immigrant journey from East to West, and from art as functional to art as pure visual expression. I intend for my trauma and existential thought process to inform how my pieces are experienced. The complexities of immigration and sexual assault survival demand emotional art, and by using traditional techniques to weave them into emotive forms, I hope to challenge the normalcy we feel when viewing visual art – while continuing to find my place in the world.