Taghrid Alghadban
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About the artist
The poet Rumi once said: "There is no big difference between East and West, South and North. Whatever your destination, you must make your journey within you. If you travel within you, you will be able to cross the wider world and beyond."
Painting for me represents this inner journey. It allows me to travel within and without myself. I never plan which direction I should go or what the theme of my painting should be, rather I flow with whatever feelings or ideas cross my mind at the time, and keep building on them until I feel it is time to stop.
Sometimes a painting takes me days or weeks to finish because I build it in layers, and each layer is a part of my journey towards my heart. Thus i pursue painting not only as an art, but also as a way of finding myself. It is a profoundly spiritual experience and activity for me.
I grew up in Syria, and I have been drawing since I was very young. I studied for two years at Santa Monica College in Los Angeles in a program for design and graphic design. Although I finished at the top of my class, I never felt satisfied with the artistic mediums at my disposal (I wanted to make art with my hands, not with a computer), so I quit the program altogether. Disillusioned with graphic art, I turned to writing. I became a published poet, translator and writer in Arabic. This occupation took me overseas where I worked with an advertisement agency. I eventually also became tired of the lifelessness of such a job and decided to return to what I have always wanted to do, painting and writing.
And joining the New Zone made me feel at home, a community and place in which I feel surrounded by free spirits like myself, who fly in all directions, who travel ceaselessly within themselves.
Painting for me represents this inner journey. It allows me to travel within and without myself. I never plan which direction I should go or what the theme of my painting should be, rather I flow with whatever feelings or ideas cross my mind at the time, and keep building on them until I feel it is time to stop.
Sometimes a painting takes me days or weeks to finish because I build it in layers, and each layer is a part of my journey towards my heart. Thus i pursue painting not only as an art, but also as a way of finding myself. It is a profoundly spiritual experience and activity for me.
I grew up in Syria, and I have been drawing since I was very young. I studied for two years at Santa Monica College in Los Angeles in a program for design and graphic design. Although I finished at the top of my class, I never felt satisfied with the artistic mediums at my disposal (I wanted to make art with my hands, not with a computer), so I quit the program altogether. Disillusioned with graphic art, I turned to writing. I became a published poet, translator and writer in Arabic. This occupation took me overseas where I worked with an advertisement agency. I eventually also became tired of the lifelessness of such a job and decided to return to what I have always wanted to do, painting and writing.
And joining the New Zone made me feel at home, a community and place in which I feel surrounded by free spirits like myself, who fly in all directions, who travel ceaselessly within themselves.