Anahita Darabbeigi

Tell us about yourself. What is your background and where did you grow up? How have your life experiences shaped your work?

I was born on August 20th,1996, while my parents were on a train trip. They managed to get to the hospital eventually, but I could easily not be here. I was raised in Tehran and lived here all my life. My parents used to go on frequent trips to different cities and countryside. I remember watching mountains, nature and all the landscapes from the car window the whole time. I believe those scenery haunted my imagination.

Why did you become an artist and what has been your journey up to this point?

This one is a difficult question to answer. Although I think people have wonderful stories about how they have become an artist, true stories, or made-up ones, I did not have any reason to study art in the beginning. For me, it was just a matter of not interested to study anything else because I thought reading all those theories were so far away from the reality of everyday life, which I could not stand. I entered art school and started to regret that. Eventually I found a great teacher and started seeing art as something to live for, as a means of expression and meaning. This was the start of an era; I began to study art history and there I found true reason to continue this way of living, by making art and finding who I was and what could I add to this world.

What is an average day in your studio like and what is your routine?

Well, I can speak of routine only when I am working on a specific series of works and the theme and technique is very clear to me, otherwise I am all over the place doing drawings, prints, small paintings, and lots and lots of sketches that will be thrown away when the main forms and atmospheres are found.

What is your creative process?

I usually do not paint something exactly like the sketches, it changes a lot through the process. I take a lot of photos of the things that have caught my attention. I make archives of photos and sketches until I find out where exactly my interest lies. One thing that I have been avoiding all the way, is doing very similar works repeatedly with slight changes.

How do you choose a medium for your work? Do you prepare and plan or do you improvise and experiment?

I work with different materials like printmaking, oil painting, markers, gouache, pastels and to create painting, sculpture and digital art. I see myself as a multimedia artist. I try to experiment and find out what material and media is best for the theme and subject I have in mind. In addition, I consider for every work to have something new in comparison to the previous ones, otherwise I don't see a point in doing it.

Are your works conveying a message? Is there a narrative or a story to your work?

Sometimes there is a line of a Persian poem backing up the narratives in some of my paintings, but the audience doesn't have to know to relate to the painting. However, form is more important to me. I look up to Persian painting in terms of perspective, colours, compositions, and how it offers meticulous details.

Who and what are some of your greatest influences in both your life and as an artist?

My greatest influence is Hannibal Alkhas who was my first art teacher and one of Iran’s most important modernist painters. I was five years old when my mom took me to his painting classes for kinds. He used to tell poems about our paintings and let us make up stories about what we have painted. I loved his classes and how he took us seriously. Bahman Mohasses and Monir Farmanfarma are also other Iranian modernists, whose works I adore.

Persian miniature paintings and Persian carpets have always been a great influence on the use of colours and perspective in my paintings.

There are also some other painters whose works I really appreciate: Muhammad Siyah Qalam, Ibrahim Mirza, Kamaleddin Behzad, Van Gogh, Münch, Klimt, Spilliaert, Kahlo, Rego, Picasso, Goya, Redon, Lautrec, Hockney, Kollwitz, Hokusai, Dix.

Do you consider your work of art a creation or a discovery?

I consider what I do a creation, based on the great works of all the artists before me.