Marjan Najafi

I was born in Tehran, Iran and later immigrated to CA, US.

My tendency toward art goes back to the first decade of my life, when art started to become the vessel for expressing my feelings and worldviews. At that time, I experienced painting in an instinctive manner and as an eruption from within; resulted as still-life paintings and drawing of pots.

My regards to drawing pots inspired by my Khayyam-like view of the world and of birth, life and death that grow and developed later in my abstract paintings. Soon after, I started to complete my knowledge of painting and experienced various painting styles like Classic, Impressionism, Surrealism, Mixed-Media, … and finally found Abstract as the main style for expressing my inner feelings. In the last six years, I have been creating most of my artworks in Abstract style and continue to do so.

My work is inspired by painters like Egon Schiele, Goya, Cezanne and Jose Clemente and I also the effect of Iranian traditional music in my artworks is undeniable.

An artistic creation; either starting by a personal idea or an inspiration, is like looking through a window to my inner-self and this is what becomes distinctive in my paintings, when I reflect and release a part of my personality in an artwork. At times, inspired by great painters, I am dragged into the ocean of creativity, sometimes the viewers’ comments become a spark for a new creation and now and then, just playing with colors on the canvas creates a new idea.

Any corner of this vast world is a subject for design and contemplation. Poems, images, people’s thoughts and beliefs, all can be a source of inspiration for my paintings. For me, painting is a personal feeling and perception of the world and I don’t intend to teach anything to my viewers. First and foremost, what drives me to pick up a brush is passing on my accumulated emotions, releasing my inner power and enthusiasm and receiving energy from the world. Of course, viewers have their personal views and different impressions that are usually impressive and an inspiration for my next works.

My paintings are always mixed with uncertainties and questions of an inquisitive mind. Why are we born and what is the reason for our attachment to the world and if the end to everything is death, why do we conform to the worldly principles? Sometimes understanding this uncertainty and darkness gets so much out of my control that I have no choice but to draw it in form of hands longing toward the source of creation and guidance in the world.

For this reason, I have frequently used a Cocoon as one of the main themes in my recent works, as it reflects my mental perception of life. In my opinion, a Cocoon can be a sign of creation, birth, embryonic life, evolution, human captivity, restriction, oppression and suffocation, darkness and death.




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