Watercolor Painting with Maryam S.

My work is about the crisis and victory in the history of the Baha'i Faith. What I'm doing is focusing on the situation of the Baha'is in Iran currently and the persecution they are facing. Through my work I hope to raise awareness about this persecuted minority and to show that even though they are deprived of rights, such as higher education, the right to employment, the right to bury their dead, the right to help their fellow humans through social and economic development projects, they are able to find victory among the crisis. I also take inspiration from my own life as my mother was imprisoned for nearly 2 years when she was 19 years old for being a Baha'i, and also my father in 2009 as well as my sister in 2016. I chose this topic as it is one that I have personal experience with and that I can paint about with detail that comes from my own life. My painting process usually begins with a search for crisis within the history of the Bahá’í Faith, this can even be a contemporary issue as well. After I find the crisis, I then search for a related victory that is associated with this crisis. This victory could have happened in Iran, or in another country of the world. Once I have chosen a crisis and its related victory, I design one painting that shows them related to one another, because in life the crisis that one person or group of people go through are not separate from the victories that are born from those crises if we look deep enough. It is easy to focus on the crisis, but it is more difficult to find the victory. I prefer to work with acrylic and oil on canvas and usually use birds in my art as a symbol of purity and innocence. I have seen many people in my life who were sinless and were sent to prison and sacrificed everything because of adherence to principles, such as truthfulness, honesty, generosity, equality and kindness. It is the example of these individuals, such as my mother and father, my sister, who have spent time in prison in Iran due to their principled behavior, that give me the motivation to share these crises and their victories with a global audience.