Helya Ebrahimi Ghajar
I'm a realist painter. I was born in Iran, and from the first moment I can remember, I've been painting. When I was eighteen, my father took me to a highly respected artist, someone he had total faith in—Aydin Aghdashloo—for an apprenticeship. That’s when I started to paint in a professional manner. Over the years, I've had many exceptional instructors. Essentially, painting is my one and only skill in life. It is my best friend, my life companion, my soul savior. No matter where I am in the world, as long as I have my favorite music and my work apparatus, I quickly achieve peace. I don’t need much else in life.
It’s been ten years since I started painting on porcelain plates. I strongly believe there is no difference between the white surface of a plate and that of a canvas or a piece of paper. Currently, I’m doing my best to create truly unique, one-of-a-kind, everlasting artworks that collectively exhibit the spectrum of human emotion.
www.instagram.com/helyaebrahimighajar/
Has the environment you grew up in affected your art practice?
Absolutely. I grew up in an environment where art was more present than anything else. My father was a writer and a director, and he also painted. He tried his hardest to ensure that art would always be a part of my life, and he succeeded.
If your artwork was a mirror, what would it reflect?
It would reflect connections to the past. We are always connected to the past in one way or another.
What is the most difficult part (or your least favorite part) of your process?
Applying the first brushstroke. Deciding on what exactly to draw first on the clean, white, blank surface of a plate is not easy.
Pursuing ‘artist’ as a career is not for the faint of heart. What is the most rewarding aspect of this pursuit?
Getting to do it as a business makes it fun. Yes, it is difficult, but in the end, it’s highly rewarding. It feels great when people fall in love with my plates and start giving me different orders.
If your art is in a lineage of artists working within similar veins, who would be part of your lineage and why?
Actually, I’d be delighted to find any type of work similar to mine. I haven’t found anything like it so far, so I guess I’m the lineage.
