A Knight Painting

Born in a small village in Iran, 1948, I spent sixty something years of my life living and engaging business in many countries including England, Germany, Netherland, Malaysia and America. Living in different countries and being exposed to various cultures allowed me for rich experiences about life and the world, while giving me a chance to expand my thoughts and cultivate my mind. For reasons unknown to me, perhaps led by the mysterious hands, I came to find my ultimate understanding and consolation in Eastern philosophies and religions; Life is an illusion, there is no birth or death as we all are in essence eternal souls, we come to Earth to learn Karmic lessons with every single person and situation as our text books, and having compassion and practicing kindness is our ultimate bliss. My paintings are in a nutshell an embodiment of “East meets West” where my Eastern thinking finds its expression via abstract acrylic painting, uniquely Western in style and medium. Such paintings as The Metamorphosis, Life Force, Rat Race and Beyond, Feast of Lights, Razzle-Dazzle, and Phoenix, are representative of my understanding about the meaning of human existence and efforts to get nearer to nirvana. Yet, as you see in the description of the paintings, I believe that the modern day enlightenment is attained not through abstinence or following strict rules living in an isolated temple or monastery, but through a full immersion in our mundane life – experiencing, embracing, celebrating the sufferings and joys in all shapes and intensities - while being aware of all the experiences in perfect clarity and transcend them. I am a self-taught artist. I have no formal education in the field of art. The majority of my hours have been spent in practicing business, buying and selling something, and I have to admit that I am not one of those few lucky people who make living doing what they love to do. In fact, my initial experiment in painting about 20 years ago was an escape from the stressful business world. Then, as I was refining my skills, I was able to incorporate my thinking into the painting and painting became tantamount to Zen practices for me. After years of intense practice, I had a few private exhibition at my residence and received incredibly positive feedbacks from visitors.