Sara Khaleghi
Interview with featured artist and 2nd place winner of the 2023 Life, Death, Love competition: Sara Khaleghi
December 2023
Echoes of the Infinite - colored pencils, 30 x 40 cm, 2023
Can you provide a brief overview of your journey as a visual artist and how you got started?
My artistic journey began in Tehran, where I discovered my love for expressing subjective emotions through drawing mediums like charcoal, graphite, and colored pencils. Being self-taught, I found solace in exploring the depths of human emotions through my art. The allure of capturing subjective emotions rather than objective reality drove me to pursue visual arts. It's the vivid, surreal portrayal of emotions and the exploration of existential themes that captivated me. This fascination matured into a deep passion for visual storytelling. Exploring various mediums, I found my voice in drawing, where I could truly manifest my imagination.
Symphony of Transcendence - colored pencils, 30 x 40 cm, 2023
The Thorn's Unspoken Language - colored pencils, 30 x 40 cm, 2023
How has your style evolved over time?
My artworks are a symphony of emotion-laden themes like fear, solitude, love, and unrequited desire. Through distortion and magical realism, I aim to evoke intense emotions, often featuring women in introspective states within nature, surrounded by natural elements.
How do you choose the subjects or themes for your artwork?
Within my portfolio, pieces like "The Garden of Melancholy" and "echoes of the infinite" encapsulate my style. They depict women immersed in deep introspection amidst nature, capturing the essence of my emotional exploration.
Can you describe your creative process from conception to completion of a piece?
My creative process begins with an emotional spark, it often occurs when I'm inspired by a book, poetry or even a good movie, translating into sketches that manifest exaggerated emotions and surreal elements. Refinement involves the dynamic application of formal elements to evoke vivid emotions.
Ephemeral Embrace - colored pencils, 30 x 40 cm, 2023
Do you have any specific rituals or routines that help you get into a creative mindset?
Drawing inspiration from fantasy books, nature, philosophy, and poetry, I immerse myself in a world of heightened emotions and symbolism, exploring profound states of mind.
How do you handle creative blocks or challenges during the artistic process?
Creative blocks are part of the process. Stepping back to immerse myself in nature or delve into books and poetry often helps me overcome these challenges.
Songs of the Cosmos - colored pencils, 30 x 40 cm, 2023
What mediums and techniques do you prefer to work with, and why? Have you experimented with different artistic mediums or techniques, and how has that influenced your work?
Charcoal, graphite, and colored pencils serve as my primary mediums. Their versatility allows me to portray emotional depth and distortion effectively.
Exploring oil painting on a larger scale is on my horizon. I believe it will offer a new dimension to my art, allowing for a deeper exploration of fantasy and emotions.
How do you approach project planning and time management, especially when working on multiple pieces or commissions? Can you share an example of a project where you had to meet a tight deadline, and how did you ensure the quality of your work under those conditions?
Approaching multiple projects involves a flexible mix of structured planning and intuitive creativity. When faced with tight deadlines, I prioritize essential elements, streamline my creative process, and maintain open communication with clients to ensure alignment without compromising on quality. Adaptability, iterative refinement, and balancing feedback are crucial in meeting deadlines while maintaining artistic integrity.
Luminous Reverie - colored pencils, 30 x 40 cm, 2023
How do you handle feedback, both positive and constructive criticism? In what ways do you seek feedback on your work, and how has it contributed to your artistic growth?
Embracing both positive feedback and constructive criticism is integral. They offer diverse perspectives that enrich my emotional narratives and aid in artistic growth. Engaging with fellow artists and showcasing my work in art communities provides invaluable insights, contributing to the refinement of my artistic expression.
What challenges have you faced in your artistic career, and how did you overcome them? How do you balance pushing artistic boundaries with meeting client or audience expectations?
Early on, navigating the journey as a self-taught artist presented financial and technical challenges. Persistence and dedication helped me overcome these hurdles. I relish the challenge of portraying highly subjective emotions and diving deeper into the complexities of human emotions and their interactions with nature. Balancing my emotional narratives with audience expectations involves transparency in communication. It's about conveying personal, introspective emotions while connecting with viewers on a visceral level.
Alchemy of the Heart's Desire - colored pencils, 30 x 40 cm, 2023
What role does continuous learning play in your artistic journey?
Engaging with poetry, philosophical discussions, and exploring contemporary art trends keeps me attuned to the ever-evolving emotional landscape and artistic expressions. Recent exhibitions featuring surreal and emotionally charged artworks have deeply influenced my perspective, urging me to explore broader emotional dimensions in my art. Learning remains pivotal in my artistic journey. Constant exploration of emotional depth and symbolism fuels my artistic growth.
Where do you see yourself as an artist in the next few years?
answer: in the upcoming years, I aim to delve into oil painting on a larger scale, exploring expansive emotional landscapes through fantasy and folklore, aiming to provoke intense emotions in viewers.
Collaborating on emotionally charged projects that fuse fantasy and symbolism to evoke deep introspection is a focus. I aspire to collaborate with like-minded artists to create immersive emotional experiences. Envisioning my style evolving towards larger-scale oil paintings, I aim to dive deeper into the realms of fantasy and emotions, exploring heightened states of human experience within nature's embrace.
Alchemy of the Heart's Desire - colored pencils, 30 x 40 cm, 2023
What advice would you give to young artists or beginners?
Don't confine yourself to one style or medium too soon. Experiment with various techniques, styles, and mediums to discover where your passion truly lies. The journey of exploration is as crucial as the destination. The road to artistic mastery is paved with challenges. Stay dedicated, keep practicing, and learn from both successes and failures. Each stroke of the brush or pencil contributes to your growth as an artist. Inspiration is everywhere, from nature's whispers to the city's bustling rhythm. Keep observing, absorbing, and letting the world around you influence your creations. It's often the smallest details that spark the grandest ideas.Embrace feedback, both positive and constructive criticism. It's an invaluable tool for improvement. Don't be discouraged by setbacks; instead, let them propel you forward.
Create Authentically: Your voice matters. Don't feel pressured to conform to trends or expectations. Your unique perspective is your strength. Let your art be a genuine reflection of your thoughts, emotions, and experiences.
Is there anything else you’d like to add? Any final thoughts?
Art is a boundless journey, an exploration of the soul manifested on canvas or in any chosen medium. To all budding artists embarking on this wondrous path, remember that your creativity knows no bounds. Cherish each stroke, each creation, and let your passion guide you. Embrace the highs and lows, for they all contribute to the beautiful tapestry of your artistic evolution. Keep creating, keep exploring, and let your art be a mirror reflecting the depths of your imagination.
Thank you, Sara!
Artist Bio:
Sara Khaleghi is an Iranian emerging artist living in Tehran, Iran. She primarily creates artworks using drawing mediums such as charcoal, graphite, colored pencils, etc. She is aged 21 and is self-taught as an artist. She explores dramatic and emotion-laden themes to convey the qualities of fear, solitude,melancholia, love, anguish, death, sexual awakening, and unrequited desire.
Artist's Statement:
I seek to depict not objective reality in my work, but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse within me. I try to accomplish this aim through distortion, exaggeration, magical realism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements.
I aim to show qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression through my art. Exploring a blend of themes such as loneliness, grief, solitude, love and existentialism in regards to the particular subject matter. The supernatural, the macabre, the dreaming realm, sadness, wickedness, and mortality are common themes throughout my work. Women became the favored symbol for the expression of these universal emotions; My work aims simply to celebrate nature with hallucinatory intensity. Rather than the literal representation of nature in order to express more subjective outlooks or states of mind.