Crossing Drawing

Faranak Siami-Namin (Fara) born in Tehran, Iran in 1960, is an architect and an artist. She grew up travelling from place to place, and living in many parts of the country, due to her family's occupation. This made her familiar with different cultures of different provinces all around Iran. From childhood, she always had a passion for painting and drawing. She graduated with a Cum-Luda BSc in Interior Architect, from Al Zahra University, (Tehran, Iran). Faranak met with Mr. Aydin Aghdashloo, very well-known Iranian painter, author, art critic, art historian and graphic designer, during her study years in Al Zahra University. That was when she decided to pursue her passion for painting alongside with her love for architecture. She was among the first group of students who started painting under Mr. Aghdashloo's supervision. In fact, along with Mr. Aghdashloo, they practically created their own "Group of Seven". She received intensive teachings in Art, History of Art, Painting with various media, drawing, general knowledge, and literature from Mr. Aydin Aghdashloo. Faranak married in 1980 in Iran. She has two children from her marriage. She continued studying Art, and painting with Mr. Aghdashloo as well as studying at the university until she graduated. Faranak moved to Sweden in 1987 for 2 years, where she studied Swedish language, and literature. She moved to and from between Iran, Sweden and Canada (Vancouver B.C. and Toronto, Ontario) several times until she finally settled in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, in 1993. During the 2 years life in Vancouver B.C. she studied, Building Technology, in BCIT. She started a desktop publishing and Design business in Toronto in year 1994. Her activities, were not limited and had a vast variety of art related productions, including paintings, portraits, art gallery reproduction orders, photo restoration, architectural design, graphic design, desktop publishing, website design, etc. Meanwhile she studied AutoCAD, Building Inspection and Ontario Building Code in a well-known college in Toronto. After becoming a single mother in year 1995, and a car accident in October 1999, Faranak and her children endured severe hardship until 2004. Her works from this period are limited to a number of dark and small size paintings proving the hardship she was facing at the time. Faranak has had a few solo exhibitions in Sweden, Vancouver, Toronto and Iran. She attended a joint venture and charity exhibition in Toronto as well.