On a very personal note, I have been a spiritual artist even before I embraced Islam. I was born a Hindu and I was raised reading the Vedas, the Upanishads, The Ramayana and The Gita. My mother being very spiritual directed me towards God and said that God has created me for a special reason and that I should try and find that special reason. I immersed myself in drawing and painting and it has been that vehicle for me to find out my purpose of existence.
Through my exploration with different colors, textures, line, forms and shapes while at the same time moving with different people, living through different situations, different cultures I have discovered that ultimately we belong to one God. As Michael Jackson has sung in his musical album The Man in the Mirror, I would like to further emphasize whether we are black or white, yellow or brown, perfect or imperfect our purpose is the same and we all have to return to one God. For me the two fields of art and spirituality merged to enable me to function as both a craftsperson and a philosopher, with spirituality infusing every moment of my artistic creations.
My work is directly influenced by my faith. This faith has given me energy, inspiration and an uplifting attitude. It has been my covenant with my Creator that by portraying beauty I want to spread that energy, joy and peace and love that He has bestowed upon me. I experience the presence of the Unseen through my art, either in abstract figurative forms or in the shape of Arabic calligraphy.
Rassouli, an Iranian spiritual artist from Southern California explains beautifully, “The images that I paint are not just my creations, but they come to life from a light that shines through me, illuminating the mystery of the soul coming into form through my hands.â€7
