I grew up in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City, a daughter of Iranian immigrants. Through my art, I selectively choose the aspects of each culture I want to inherit, on my own terms. The negotiation of cultures in my work reflects the first-generation American experience. The Persian-Islamic art influences I inherit include color, pattern, detail, ceramic textures, stylized representation, and symbolism. But I take permissions from my Western influences to make art that is visceral, emotional, individualized, corporeal, experimental, raw, and free.
Unlike the Persian-Islamic art system that shuns authorship and the individual, my art emphasizes my own hand and imagination. My paintings embrace cultural baggage with a flamboyant pride, recalling the flamboyant elements of Iranian culture that counteract its repressive systems. This flamboyance in my work also unites Persian-Islamic with baroque sensibilities worldwide, undermining prevalent notions of an alien, isolated Islamic world.