Daydreaming Machine II Painting

I was born in Shiraz, Iran, in 1960. The same year I began my post-secondary education in engineering, I enrolled in part-time painting classes taught by the Iranian artist G.H. Saber. This started a lifelong journey on two diverging paths: pursuing my true calling as an artist, and earning a living. Despite devoting much of my free time and attention to art, I remained in engineering for many years due to practical and financial concerns. With my wife's support, I finally quit my job in October 2021 to fully focus on my art! For years, graphite and pen and ink drawing felt the most intuitive to me. After moving to Canada, I got into printmaking in 2003, which introduced me to the local printmaking community and expanded my technical and market possibilities. In the early 2010s, I began experimenting with oil paint, which quickly turned into my favorite medium. Visual imagination and illusions are my primary inspirations. As an obsessive daydreamer, I “see things” in the most ordinary objects and occurrences. This has been a common thread in my art since my childhood scribblings. Over the years, my approach to these "apparitions" has evolved. My prints were more stoic, while my recent paintings are more free and relaxed. Today I call myself a fantasy artist, not in the popular sense of illustrating preconceived unreal creatures and scenes. Rather, through my art I try to see and discover new and unfamiliar worlds, and incite viewers to do the same.