About

I work as a graphic designer but I started out life as an abstract painter. The urge to make images—any kind of images—tugs at me daily. It could be the angle of light, an ironic composition or the solitude of the moment.

My process is stream of consciousness—being drawn to scenes where the basic elements of art coalesce into a pleasing gestalt. The image within the frame is more than anything a psychological space of shadow and light. There is the reality of the scene and there is the mood that it evokes. Longing and nostalgia are recurring themes. Whatever the subject matter, I am most drawn to exploring shadow and light, rhythm and pattern, color and gesture. Most of all, I search for a beauty that often feels out of reach.

Bio

I was born in Tehran, Iran and emigrated to the U.S. in time for high school. My academic background includes studying painting at the California College of Arts, and exhibiting in small group shows in the Bay Area as I finished graduate studies in clinical psychology and art therapy. After a decade working in the business world, I returned to the arts and started a company writing and illustrating greeting cards. I self-published under the title Y Art Works. Around the same time, UNICEF commissioned three different series of small paintings for their line of notecards; Digital Stock, one of the earliest publishers of digital imagery, commissioned work for a CD of painterly effects called Conceptual Backgrounds; and I landed my first design client. I began working with a camera about 10 years ago and I keep a daily visual diary with a focus on my immediate environment, the subtleties of light and intimate moments of ordinary life.