Not Frieda Painting

As a self-taught Iranian-Italian artist I’ve always taken inspiration from my own experiences of the world. I’ve been painting since 3 years old with a first exhibition when I was a late teenager and have been very fortunate to have gained great inspiration from my parents. Born in Italy and raised in Iran, we then left in the late seventies to live in Rome, Seattle and then Atlanta. The memories of my Iranian homeland are now just nostalgic images, as the country has irreversibly changed and is unrecognisable to me. I have lived in many places where I have felt like both a foreigner and a local. These things all give inspiration to my practice. I try to take the scenes and my experience and emotions of a place and with a vague idea of composition, I begin to paint. My artworks are often centred around a female protagonist and capture the nuances of the ever changing world around me which I see every day becoming faster paced and more automated with the advancement our society now sees. My Italian mother was a renowned painter (collected by Farah, Queen of Iran, and had many exhibitions around the world) and her teachings guided me in my artistic development. From her I learned how to combine bold colours and freedom of design. My Iranian father was an architect and his guidance with technical drawing has helped me develop skill with composition. My work shows influences from Renaissance painters like Raphael, and the Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriele Rosetti, but also the Surrealists, de Chirico and Magritte. They all have had an influence on my view of life, being "real"(Raphael and Rossetti) and "surreal"(Magritte and De Chirico) the later dared to challenge the dogma to express change and freedom of thought. What is it to be an Iranian and Italian artist in contemporary society? Drawing from experiences of Italy, Iran, USA and London, carefully balancing my Iranian and Italian blood, and observing how Iran has changed, my paintings seek to bring ideas, observations and questions closer to the surface. My work lets me express how the mix of two cultures and everyday life can be expressed through art and how it works in harmony. I paint my nostalgic view of a world which no longer exists and one which is my home. I hope we can all wake up from our fast-paced automated life and its errors before it is too late (to enjoy the "real" life).