Sowgand Sheikholeslami

Artist Statement

My work for the past few years has been mostly pen and ink drawing, almost exclusively black and white. It has allowed me to express myself in a very spontaneous way. The fine lines of my drawings have translated into motion, emotion, light and even color to me. They have always looked to me as if they came directly from my subconscious. On paper they appear to me as if they come from deeper layers, where things aren't always beautiful. They show the complexity of the subjects, not what's on the surface, but what's deeper and sometimes darker.

But recently I've begun to notice that, as rewarding as my intuitive relationship with drawing is, it is a curse as well. I've been struggling to find a way of combining line and color in paint that has the same spontaneous freedom of my drawings. A couple of months ago I had reached a point where I felt like I was just drawing with paint. I was trying to fill the spaces between my beloved lines with color, and I didn't like the result. That was the turning point. I gave up on drawing lines, and started creating lines by allowing the areas of color to touch and overlap each other. Suddenly, my paintings began to show the same tactile, three dimensional and improvisational quality that I felt my pen and ink drawings had, almost as if they were happening by accident.

As I go forward, I learn more from each painting. With each brush stroke, that is altered by the next, I discover new possibilities. The frustration of solving a puzzle is followed by the satisfaction of creating a new object of expression.

Artist Exhibitions

Education and Occupation

Exhibitions

Exhibits in Iran

Exhibits in Memphis

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