Ali Zakeri Transcript and Audio

Ali Zakeri

Audio of the Entire Interview

zakeri audio site 1

zakeri audio site 2

Interview Transcript

Part 01

I was born in 1338 in Sukahriz village of Zanjan province

My father Mohamad Hossein had a good voice.

A memory that has stuck in my mind is that, he used to draw
on big exam papers with three pens blue, red and black

He drew some portrait, a man on a horse

And I always remember them and I had loved to do the same. They were for before school times.

My mom Soraya that I lost her when I was 6 months, and this deep blue color
that can be seen in all of my works is a symbol of that Soraya

Despite the present conditions that all the painting equipment is available,
we couldn’t even find a pencil and we used to draw with a pin on the walls

I remember it well, as I studied during 40s and 50s

and afterward my father found a job and we left the village and we never came back

What I remember is a drawing of a lion that I drew on my school
bench and my classmate said that when they look at the lion, they remember me

Another thing that I well remember is a painting that I did from a small picture

I didn’t go to school, I was 8 or 9 and I was working

We immigrated to Tehran, when I finished the painting my dad
gave me one or two Tomans as a prize and
he said that this painting is really good and this was really encouraging for me

It was my first painting

After two years we came back to see the village again

I remember that one of our relatives drew something- he wasn’t an artist-
but that painting was so interesting for me and I was wondering how a young man in a villages

that had no education and hadn’t drew anything before and
was just farming could draw something so nice

I remember that I paid 10 Tomans and bought a big wooden board
and asked him to draw something on it

Many years passed and he didn’t draw anything on it after some years
I saw that they are using it as a kitchen board.

At that time, 10 Tomans was a big money and I paid it to have a painting
and this was a symptom that showed me how much I loved painting

Another symptom than proved my interest toward painting was this story

I was 8 or 9 and I was working in a photography shop. My manager name was Alireza

Once her drew something with a pen, and
I asked him to give me the painting, I was sure that I love painting at that time

Afterward, whenever I found a piece of paper, I drew something on it.
I should add it that I didn’t go to school regularly till I was 13 and I just worked.

I first came to school in the first grade of junior high. Part time, as I worked,
I had to go to night schools

Once they placed me in the third grade and then my brother told
that he hadn’t passed the first grade yet, why did you place him here?

Then they put me in the first grade again. I live more than studying.
Once Shahram Taheri told me “ would you please draw something?”

I did, he sent it and they sent me a medal. There was a competition in Shiraz. And I was so happy

During all of these I didn’t go to school.

I was about 14 that I got tired from Tehran.
I came back to the small city “ Khoram Dare” and I started to study

the first grade of junior high and it was really great, that you study without working.
Once I drew a simple painting and took it to school,
my teacher, Mr.Aghai, looked at it carefully and gave me a 20!

After a while, another teacher of mine, Mr. Parastoo, bought me a box of oil paint and
I mixed them with water as I didn’t know how to dissolve them, these kinds of
encouragements meant a lot to me at that age

They became my motivators and I became our school artist. And painting was started at that period

My junior high period was interesting. I came to Tehran in summer,
I made money and then came back to schooll

I started by selling flowers with my uncle, then to photography shops with Alireza,
and then butchery with my manager Mr. Zabih, then to a barber shop and tailor shop,
then I went to a shop that made coats for military

I put the coats on my shoulders and took them to laundry.
Then I worked in a lamp making shop and in watch shop.
I had over ten to twenty jobs that I can’t remember now

I worked in an office and there I started painting seriously for the first time

I found a magazine in which there was a big portrait of Hood. I closed the door
( as I was a janitor there) and I drew

It took me half an hour and it was really hot inside. Then I showed it and they were all surprised

Everybody was so eager to know what I wanted to be in the future.
I tried many different jobs and painting just came to me and it stayed with me up until now

The way that I got interested to it was interesting. The Passion of Life by Van-Gogh
just changed my life. I was the painter of our school and they sent me to different competitions

Without informing my family, I used to go to Zanjan that was about 80 km form the village.
I took a mini-bus and went to bookstore that had magazines

There were some paintings inside the magazines and he sold them to me
for 5 cents. I bought them and copied them

Then he suggested me to buy some foreign paintings and I said not.
He insisted and I accepted to buy them for 1 cent. I bought them and I practiced from them

And you know, that was interesting that I threw away all the five-cent-
magazines but the foreign ones turned out to be Rembrandt’s and Monesch’s paintings

I was a smart student in junior high school but I was devoting all my time painting and drawing.
Then in the last year of school if I hadn’t cheat, I would have failed

And my friend Hossein Atai helped me to pass them all. But I had kept my statue and
everybody considered me as a good and smart student.

The schools were finished. As I was under the influence of Van-Gogh,
I took a backpack and a hat and some handmade canvas and went to
Kelar Dasht and stayed with a friend Mr. Fouladi

I stayed there for a month and drew and paint all day long. I didn’t know anything about painting
and I just mixed colors on the canvas.

Before going to vocational school, my art teacher Mr. Ghomi Nejad who had been graduated
from Danesh Saray Honar told me that I would take you to the school as the manager was his friend.

Then we went to Tehran in Jomhori street. The school was there.
I sat in the corridor and he went to speak with the manager.
Then a young girl just sat by me and asked me what I was doing there

I told him that my teacher wanted to register my name in the school.
The girl started complaining about the school and said that they have no good
rules here and you should go to vocational school in Pich-Shemran

For a quarter she worked on my mind and when my teacher came and said
that the manager accepted to register my name, I said that I wouldn’t come here
and I should go to vocational school

I met that young lady again and we were friends, after that the girl became popular
“ Fatemeh Motamed-Arya”. And I still think that how
responsible she was and interfere in someone’s decisions though she didn’t know him

The school was closed about a year later though. The way that the
girl persuaded me and I trusted her was interesting. Totally speaking
I am not logical man and I make my decisions by my heart. I trusted her and I went to
Art vocational school.

Part 02

Vocational school, Military service, University

I went to art Vocational school. I had an exam including
national documentary, miniature and painting, I practiced a little

the head of the school was a woman who told me that you had to
be first to tenth student to be accepted here because I was one or two years older

I became the second one. When I went to register again, I felt that the manager
doesn’t want to register me and I asked why?

She answered because you have no job or life here and you are alone,
now we accept you here and start classes but if you are not able to come, then you just have taken
someone else’s place. Please do it for me and I will come, I said

There was a gentleman who said please register him because he passed the exam.
I found out later that the kind man who helped me was Mr. Bahram Alivandi

Although he was with us for a short time but I will always remember him and
he was one of the most valuable painters.

It was 1 or 2 years before the revolution that
I had spent one year and half in vocational school

A person that I remember from the school was Mr. Sharifabadi
who was very supportive and effective in my life. Mr. Izadpanah was my drawing teacher and
I really liked his works in that session and he was very effective in
creating a work atmosphere in which I got interested in painting

but Mr. Izadpanah mostly insisted on water-color because of that
I could not follow his works.Another one whom
after a while became our headmaster was Mr. Mohammadi

Although I had lack of self- confidence and slacked in communication,
Mr. Mohammadi was so good to me. I was broke ,sometimes he bought
my drawings and it was a support for me

my father and I were broke at the whole period of my school and if I would
met him he just gave me some money. Although my father was
a worker and when I was in Tehran he worked in Khoramdareh , but he was a honorable man

the more I remember him the more I feel he had good outlook despite his
poverty. He talked to me respectfully, he wrote dear Mr. zakeri in his letters to me

he was worried about me and would came to meet me. One day I asked him:
can you come to our school ? no, I am embarrassed that my appearance is not that good”

then he said I will come there if you tell your friends, I am
not your father and I accepted, but when we arrived there I said proudly that he is my father

I am so happy that time I had such a view that hardworking people were valuable
to me and I wanted to kiss their hands and created a good relation between me and my father.

I will not forget two friends of my conservatory.one of them was Amir Hossein Asadi. we were
classmate in the first and second year of school .he was a good painter
and he martyred in the war and I couldn’t believe it

Another one was Ali Shabani who was alone and in poverty like me
. when he went to get his card at the end of military service and martyred

The school period was very effective in my work and life because unlike the
current schools that prepare students for entrance exam I never heard anything about it
and I didn’t want to take the entrance exam but my drawing
board was always beside me and I was drawing

I was a weak student who didn’t study at all. Now there is less art atmosphere in current art schools
.so I have to say that the vocational school was a good period in my life and I want
to thank all of them that were effective in my life

During school I was looking for a teacher to work with him and I found Mr. Alkhas.he had
and the classes were held very seriously

I started my classes but I asked him to not to talk about the costs. he was very patient and I
attended my classes for free a period of time and I was a kind of opposition in his class and
my works were set apart from other students on judgment .Now some of my students are like me

Mr. Alkhas’s posture drawings are as yet effective in my classes.
I learned the importance and abundance of drawing from Mr. Alkhas

Thereafter I found the book techniques and methods of drawing by Kimon Nikolaids that had
exactly the system and method that Mr. Alkhas used for human posture
and figure drawing in his classes

I finished conservatory in 1360 and I had a bad event, my father died as soon as I wanted
to meet him. He was both father and mother to me because of this it made me so upset.
In those days I was going to Mr. Kasrayan classes

He had posted pictures of me and my father on the wall, I was alone and these pictures
bothered me. I thought it is unbearable and the only thing can calm me down is military

Because it was wartime and that could calm my mind a little. The war was intense and
I was scared and didn’t want to die. I spent my military training course at the

they sent us to a desert in Semnan for Iraqi prisoners of war . I cried for them and I was
heartbroken and couldn’t believe it. For the next training course I went to Arak at the Iraqi’s
POW camp as a guard there

I saw a prisoner who had woven a picture of his wife on a white cloth with a thread he had cut
from breech cloth. It was a very strange period. One day I was a guard with a gun and
I was told to take a sick prisoner to the hospital

An ambulance arrived and we were in the desert that was 30 or 40 km away from Semnan.
We got in the ambulance and sat face to face but his eyes were closed.
I thought ,is he really my enemy?

I couldn’t believe it .Beads of perspiration covered her forehead and he couldn’t see that
I was crying for him but I still had a gun in my hand to kill him if he wanted to escape.
We experienced many contradictions.

My military service finished and I was not intended to
go to university. I had a friend, whose name was Fahime Savadkoohi Gooran who
insisted on my attending to the university

I said “no” but she insisted again .I had to work to make money and however, I started
my work and studied at the same time.One day I was walking in Bahar Publication
when I met Mr. Sherveh

When I finished military service he told me I will found you a job. There was a place down the
Bahar publication alley where books were published without pictures and needed someone
to stick these pictures in them and it was my first job

I started my work and made some money but when I got tired of this job ,
Mr. Sherveh told me to work with mr. Dashtban in making Moulage

I was working with him from morning to evening and during the 5 or 6 months that I was there
, I also studied. A friend of mine said that I am jealous of you because I have a
mother but everyone can be your mother

I have not seen my mother, I don’t have any picture of her and because
I don’t know what she looks like ,all mothers can be my mother

Accordingly every one made friends with me and supported me. Ms. Savadkoohi was
one the best graphic designer and her brother Mehdi was my friend and I socialized with them.
I was working from morning to night and could study a little for entrance exam in the
bus but I was not yet interested in going to university.

I got happy when I read the newspaper and realized that I had passed the entrance exam,
I worked again and was accepted to the fine arts. there were 7 or 8 courses that I could take
but I had a high grade and chose the fine arts and started studying in 1363.

Part 03

Activities in Graphic Area

Let me tell you about the university.

Two days after starting the classes, I met someone. He wore specific
clothes and had a big bag

He asked me where I lived and what was my job. I said that I had no house!
He was shocked. The other day he told me that he found me a house

My friend dr.Ali Asghar Mirzai, who teaches arts and history in university,
found me a house in Si-Merti_Jey

The rent was 1.400 per months and we used to go by bus. The term was started,
we shared the apartment and we divided the rent. Fortunately, at that time the universities
paid us some kind of scholarship. About 1.400 per months

We spent half of it for the house rent and the rest would be enough for our expenses. The time that spent in university was really great

That was a good opportunity to go to university and if I hadn’t attended the university
I would be drawn in my works and had another way for my life.

I can definitely say that the most influential professor that I had was Mr. Rouin Pakbaz

I had the basic of art with him. When he was teaching I didn’t understand him,
I was just in love with him. I worked and showed them and he used to
say :” Zakeri, that was really good”

I had art and history and some other painting courses with him. And I found him more
influential that the collage. And now, his views have affected my teaching style

I had visualizing with Mr. Shabahangi. There were some professors that
I didn’t dare to have class with them like Mr. Momayez

He had a kind of charismatic character and students were afraid as he was so straight in his classes

After the university, I had a trip to China and he was there and I understood
who wrong I was and he had such a high spirit.

Who were your classmates at that time?

Mr. Faramarzi was one of the best artists in our group. Mr. Hossinirad, with whom
I have many memories. Being with the others and holding exhibitions and working
seriously were all my memories

At that time, me, Mr. Mirzai and Mr. Tohidi started working together without being asked to.
I mean we were active and we were trying hard We drew nature with hachure pens and we
had different exhibitions in Mashhad and Rasht temporary art museums

I really like to remind Mr. Sherve who
was a real supporter man. He was passing by you, he noticed you and asked you if you
had bought the hachure pens and he would give you the address to find pens.
Or he would just introduce you good books.

Once I went to Kan to practice with the hachure pens. It was winter and it was very cold.
I was sitting on the snow and I just stood and sat again to bear the coldness.

It was finished by the evening and I just saw Mr. Sherve who was getting back,
he came to Kan to practice. He saw my sketch and he liked that. From the next week,
we came with each other. We had some thing to eat together and it was a great pleasure to
be with him. He did his paintings systematically, while I didn’t.

I received my B.A in 1369. My final project was about hometown. I went to Zanjan and
had an excellent collection and received my score.
Because of my financial conditions I had to work

During 1368-69 I was working in Ms. Nonahali’s office as a graphist.
The fact is that during 1369-70 we couldn’t sell our paintings and we were forced
to have other jobs beside painting

Jobs like teaching. I was teaching and as I wanted to marry, I went to work in Iran-Khodro
company and found a job in graphic section. The job was really difficult and boring.
I had to start my work at 6, while I didn’t like to start work before 10

I went to work by a bus, with almost 10.000 other workers. In the morning, all the workers
were walking with their breakfast in a plastic bag, just like ghosts!
The scene was similar to resurrection

I got married in 1370

Then I participated in a biennial and the prize of the winners was a trip to china

Me and 16 other artists won the prize and went to china. Mr. Momayez and
his wife, Mr. Hosseini and some other artists were there and it was a really good trip

Then I got involved with my daily life and the role of p ainting became very faded.
I was into graphic and I was chosen as the artistic manager of Samand
Project and the exhibitions manager

In 1376 I was accepted in M.A in Tarbiat-e-Modares university. My thesis project was “ going
back to childhood” and Mr. Hosseini Helped me a lot. I like this period of my life,
as I had the chance to go back to painting.

In 1380 I just noticed that I couldn’t work anymore in the company. So I resigned! They suggested
another management opportunity and gave me a week to think about it

I was facing with a dilemma. In the company, everything was systematic and guaranteed:
my salary, my promotions, my holidays my foreign trips,
I ignored them all and resigned from the company

I started professional painting after Iran-Khodro. My only problem was the financial issues.
It was difficult to keep the balance. I had my family’s responsibilities but
I didn’t want to accept every offered jobs

I felt that the only job that I was good at was teaching. So, I started to teach. And I did it honestly.
I don’t want to exaggerate but painting was a great solace
for me and the world of painting support human being.

Part 03

Working periods (1)

When I was in junior high, I got familiar with some artisits and I supposed that their works
are the only art in the world

Now when I see my students follow specific artists and are affected by them, I don’t
get upset because I had the same objective space and I copied most of
my work before going to vocational school

Most of my work were figurative and it had a social atmosphere. In most of my work,
social concerns could be seen and in all my works I had a kind of reference to my own life,
even my dad was in them.

I continued painting during military service and I held an exhibition in Fair Art Faculty after that
and it was called “ the notes of Military service”. The paintings illustrated the dull,
sad and tiring atmosphere of the military service

Again when I entered the university, my works had social concerns besides the theories.
I have a work, its name is “ Sog (the Mourning” that won the biennial prize

The whole atmosphere is drawn from my hometown, as my father was a reciter of elegies,
I included him in my painting. In this work, people were mourning for losing a hero

At first, there was a corpse on a horse, then I found it too cliché and I deleted it,
the horse was black, but I found it too symbolic, so I made it white to express hope in it.
I couldn’t get out of the atmosphere and I was in my painting.

After university, the poetic atmosphere was more in my works and I loved to do critical works
and miniature. But my works are still figurative. Then I was introduced to children’s subject

When I met children’s painting, my works became more colorful and the previous
dark and expressionist atmosphere was faded. At that time, I had kids and I wasn’t
the before marriage “Ali Zakeri. I kept doing it till 1378

Then I decided to have my own interpretation of children’s world and
the expressionist and emotional atmosphere entered my works gradually.

One of my exhibition was “ departed human” in 1381. I was still working on human fragility and the
injuries that they had in the world. That is the reason that most of my
works were figurative, as this issue has always been bothered me

While I was working on scattered human, Bam earthquake happened. I was so distressed 
that I devoted all my works to Bam earthquake. This was again a sad and humanistic subject. 
I felt that I should do something as an artist. As Mr. Alizadeh made some songs.

I started considering the events and revised them. The ruins, destructions, corpses… 
I felt that they are not my responses and they could express my sympathy. 
I started asking myself that what I was going to tell these people? I just wanted 
to express my sympathy

What would I do if this happened to me? It seemed that I had lost my own family. 
Then I put all the canvas on the floor and drew my kids face on them. Then with a black color 
I covered them and just a disported image remained of the faces

Then with ochre that was similar to dust I covered the whole canvas. Among the 
ochre colors some images could be seen. I wanted to show them that I understand them

It was a conceptual work and human suffer was really important to me.

I was working on wood and MDF from 77-85 because it gave the opportunity to draw with coal. 
As wood is very hard and compact the expressionist atmosphere could be shown easily

Then as wood can’t be bent or folded and it was difficult to carry it, I quit using it. 
But MDF is still an alternative for me and gives me an expressionist feeling

During the other working period, I had an exhibition in “Khane- Honarmandan” which was 
again figurative. Again, images were appeared in my works. I used my wedding image

I then noticed the images and concentrated on them. I used to take photos but I didn’t see
the hidden concepts in images. You know there are some images that have meanings 
beyond other imagaes.

Part 05

Working periods (2)

My first workshop was six days with six artists which was really beneficial for me and was
welcomed by the visitors. My last workshop was “ sticking plaster”

Three years ago, after Azerbaijan earthquake, I asked 15 artists to join me and they accepted
to work with me and some children. We wanted to help the kids with the benefits of our sells

Many kids were involved and worked on sticking plasters. The dimensions were changed and
they were not cliché like working on A4 paper. They painted on thousands of 0sticking
plasters and sold them and paid the money to us

They did a humanistic work. Some artists used the sticking plasters to make a tableau.
Then we sold all the works and they were sold out and we were able to buy art
packages for 5.000 kids in Azerbaijan

Some other companies helped of course. I had great days with my dear friends,
though it wasn’t representational.

Afterward I had exhibitions that represented my own feelings and I named it “ Limbo”.
In Turkish, when someone is angry they call him/her as being in Limbo

I mean you aren’t feeling good and you don’t know where you belong to. I was in such situation.
I had quit my job in Iran-Khodro and I had personal and financial problems

I held an exhibition in Day Gallery. the collection was full of red. It was difficult to breathe in
such atmosphere, it was 1386-87.

I have another collection which is named “ rope-dancer”. In this series I am a rope-dancer,
I am walking and trying to keep the balance

A part is the obvious needs and the other part is not that much obvious. Keeping the
balance is really difficult. I drew them to say that I have to keep the balance between
my artistic life and practical life.But it is terribly difficult

But the other result was that I told myself :” do the dance rope and enjoy that. You chose to
be a rope-dancer and you should enjoy that”. I felt much better.

I have another figurative series that was done two years ago and is one of my best works.
Sad, objecting, and suppressed women that are being to be departed. It has an expressionist
atmosphere and I really like it. The trace of loosing mother can be seen in them.

I didn’t have any exhibition during 1387 and I worked on “ aggression” as a subject. Because
in our temporary world we can just see aggression. The aggression that I had toward myself.
I haven’t been kind to myself, flowers, birds and my family

We have been grown up with a sense of oppression. The perfectionism that was in our parents
is still with us. Why are we treating so unkind with ourselves? Why don’t we ask
our inner child to come out and treat him kinder?

I understood it at the age of 50. I called that little Ali inside me and I told him that I was going
to buy him a Pepsi and ice-cream. I felt that all these aggressions are not just due to the society.
It was just related to me.

The reality is that we just see the aggressive scene on tv and news. People judge each
other aggressively. Though man people are looking for peace and kindness. Because
peace is missing in our society

If people talk to each other, lots of their problems would be solved. It means that I am not
in war with you. There is no wrong intention, but it is mere ignorance

I wish someone could show me who is my friend and who isn’t. it would be late, just like Rostam
and Sohrab, we have to do something before they kill each other.

Part 06

The characteristics of the works

I was interested in painting but I didn’t have any distinction for different forms of painting.
I just drew and paint something

When I was working in a watch-shop, on the way to the shop I should pass from Plasco Mall,
in the mall there was a painting shop that was for Mr. Dadashi

Everyday, my boss got angry at me, as I was late. I used to put my nose on the window and
watch him drawing and painting. I loved that. You know it was my taste of art. During junior high,
I had the same tendency

I was interested in Morio’s works. The Passion of Life affected me a lot. I was fascinated by
Van-Gogh. Also, some Russian artists like Ripen, Iilan. I was under the influence of Van-gogh,
I used to go out and paint nature.

By coming to Tehran, both my artistic and musical taste was changed. In vocational school,
the meaning of paining was changed. As it was revolution period, we had tendency
toward artists that showed people pain and suffering, like Rivera, Goya, Sike

They affected our paintings as they expressed a kind of social view in their works.
Totally speaking, people’s sorrow and happiness were expressed in their works

After entering university, I was introduced to new concepts like miniature and I focused on it.
That period was started with the atmosphere that Mr. Pakbaz had created and the
he showed me the vast atmosphere of painting

I don’t want to exaggerate, but I got familiar with modern and contemporary art in university.
I can clearly remember that my paintings were influenced by artists like Kitaj and Hoper.

In that time, I asked Mr. Pakbaz to let me skip off the classes for two months.
He accepted and I went back to my hometown, Sukahriz. I got up at 5 a.m and worked till sunset.
I guess all I learned about colors and shadows was for that period,
but it was continued to other periods of my life

I want to say that, the freedom gave me the opportunity to see. I still use that experiences
for my works and it is a kind of support for me. At that time
it was possible to go and paint from nature

I used to paint all the time and I was somehow self-learned. Most of my students are worried
after two sessions that what would happen if they screw up? And I assure them that is ok.
But when I was drawing, I was worried for two years that whether my drawing is good or not.

When I was young, I was looking for my subjects. I remember when I was in junior high school,
I thought for two or three days to find a subject to draw. Eventually, I drew some trees just as
if I was looking at them from the downward to upward. Finding such a subject was really difficult.
But later on, the subjects found me

While I am walking, subject encounters me and asks me to accept it as a subject. It was a problem.
Now, I write some ideas and let them go. I have many notebooks

But there is a single subject that I have worked on it for five or six years. Life shows me some
simple subjects, I see them and choose them as my subject.

I used to watch boxing on tv. I have never flighted with anyone. I hate fighting and aggressive
actions. If I see people fighting, I would escape! But I was watching boxing on tv and
I didn’t know why. But gradually, the subject approached me and I started working on it.
I chose boxing as a contemporary aggression

I want to say that sometimes the ideas are hidden and you can not see them easily.
It is like a chromosome, you have it inside yourself, then you go to a doctor
find out that you have a baby

You find yourself pregnant on some ideas. In my idea, giving birth is not just limited to women.
An artist gets pregnant and delivers an idea.

I owe the greatest influence from a great thing named “life”. I mean you should look
around yourself carefully and find something. Referring to art and history is good. For example,
Degas affected me a lot

Lots of my works during university time was affected by him. Colors, composition, drawing
, technic …all of them were affected by him. I mean beside art and history,
life was a good source to learn new things.

When my daughter was four, she showed me a new world of painting. For a person like me
who had finished his university and considered himself as an artist, the works
of a four years old girl affected me

That fluidity and freedom and the childhood events are always with me. Children’s games are
always a part of me. Games are serious issues. Sometimes, parents want their children to be serious.
Imagine a game like football! It is completely a serious matter, a systematic, economic game!

Theater is a game. Kids are the best source of games and as I progress,
I find my return to game and fluidity more.

Sometimes an idea comes to you and prove itself and grows inside you. You have to delete
some of them, but keep the others and these are the main ideas. You have to get familiar
to them and give yourself to them. You can do photography, see the subject on tv,
it has different shapes

But at some spot, you feel that you have control over it. Now you should find the proper equipment
, it might have volume or it might need specific tools. You should treat it gently

Sometimes you just want to be successful and everything is so crystal clear.
Some artists even know the dimensions of their works. But I can’t do that.
I am at the service of the subject but I treat gently. In the process of painting,
some aspects may change, even the dimension and colors.

Sometime I stay far from the painting and say “ that’s enough!” I have obsessive attitude and
feel like expressing more in my paintings. In this way, the subject approaches me.

Each new work is a new project and at the end we turn to a person with lots of cliche experiment.
How it starts and ends, I don’t know. I wait for a new atmosphere. I knew that the blue color was really
good but I change it. I take a risk and this is essential for an artis. I don’t know when my works will finish.

I usually try to have a name for my works to lead the viewer to get the meaning.
One of my work was named “ birth, life and death” without a name the tableau had no clue.
But for my abstract, expressionist works I don’t choose a name.

Part 07

The characteristics of the works

The reason that human bodies were torn in my works is that I feel human beings are
the most vulnerable creatures in the world. Not just his heart, but his body will break

This is so severe that I can feel it. Broken and destroyed people that are not far from me.
When I changed my job, after the damages that I had in my job and I was bothered
in achieving my dreams about painting, I started my work with that disintegrated people

Sometimes war make these disintegrated bodies. It might be my utopia to do the jobs that I like,
but I am torn into pieces. I should pay the bills while I am painting, I have to take the garbage
out while drawing, I mean when I am doing my favorite work,
I have to do the other things that I don’t like

I felt that we are disintegrated in this world. If you go hiking today and you don’t have your
mobile phone, you are unified on that day and you are not disintegrated. You are in nature,
you see mountains and come back

But if you spend that day in Tehran, you spend the whole day in sending sms, answering phone
calls, going to bank and other things, then you can see how disintegrated you are

Sometimes, being disintegrated will cast doubt on our unity. Do you know how to do something
with high quality? You have to put all your energy on it and do it.

We have a drill in our hands and make hundreds of holes. If you make just one hole then you
can reach to the other side of the wall and see the sun rays. That disintegration is not just for
war harms, it is in our mind as well0.

Time passes so fast. Stay in nature for a whole week and don’t work, you will have a long week.
You can even write a book. But stay here for two weeks, you can’t write a book.
Yes, our mind has this view toward these disintegrated people

The flat levels and neat pieces come from a graphic atmosphere that I worked. It means that
I had to lay out different atmospheres in my painting. Event the scattered people have
an atmosphere that is not cubism.

This atmosphere comes from a period that I had graphic activities. But now I am far from that
atmosphere. The neatness that I had at that time, doesn’t exist anymore

But, having different shapes and atmosphere was the results of being involved with several subjects.
I was trying for what I wanted to say and I was doing my best to use the
capacity of different atmosphere

The structure of the work was very important and I wanted to set it like a theater scene and
present my own story there. I liked oppositions. I wanted to present an absolute dark,
bright color, or having a curve in a straight line to create oppositions

I had these contrasts in my life and are presented in my works. It is a kind of
black and white and is shown like a form in the works

But as I moved on, my works become simpler and the structuralism that used to be a lot in
my works has been shown less. I really want to deal with the subject that I want to present and
stop focusing on the structure of the work

Wherever we go, we can see the effects of the atmosphere that we live in. the effects have
two sides. In one of them I go and study about what shows my identity and bring them into
my works. In the other one, the effects are shown in your works unintentionally. Like our
miniature, that I approached it and found its details

There are some concepts in that, which throw itself in my works when I stay with it. I didn’t
want to have miniature in these pallets when I was doing them. But as I used to see miniature
and was interested in these works, my works gradually became like this. This was spontaneously
and abstract, I didn’t try to stop it or urge it to go to that way.
It is just like seeing a miniature work as a flow. It means that you omit all the details

When you do a spontaneous work, you let the world inside you to be present there
, takes your hands and leads you

I did nature painting and looked at the miniature a lot and in the first step, the pallets took
me to the nature scenes and gradually it approached itself to miniature. It was one of the best
working periods for me, but unfortunately I passed from it, but there are still
some effects of it in my life.

I worked on nature a lot, when I was a university student. The atmosphere and ochre,
green and mature colors of the soil.

The mature alizarine that were mixed with soil colors, the shadows, the purple color of the nature,
all of them were shaped in my works and then came out of my memory into the pallets.

There is another period in my life that took me out of natural colors, and that was due to
my return to expressive atmosphere and the red color was highlighted in my works and
I called it “limbo”

ut this is amazing that the ochre colors are again shown in my works. My first series were grey
. Due to my interest toward deep colors, I didn’t like to use raw colors.
The pallets helped me to add pure color in my works

. The difference between my internal world
and external world makes a challenge and contrast here. The utopia that we are looking
for is something else

For example, the world that I love is full of kindness, but the world that I see outside is truly unkind.
And this makes contrast and conflict and makes me to have it in my works,
I mean what I need lacks some aspects and that bothers me

One thing that gets me is the lack of kindness. That is why I work on aggression.
It doesn’t mean that I like aggression, but it can be seen everywhere and
is presented in the background

I remember when I was younger and I was involved with my imaginations, I couldn’t
accept the internal and external world differences. Though as I grew older, I managed to
accept the differences. Being mature taught me to accept things as they are. This is my age
, my problems and world situation. I accept them all, but I am looking for other things as well.

Part 08

Traditional and Modern Art

The presence of alternatives or centers for discussing art are important events.
Something like Ghandrizi’s Hall or Sagha-Khane

Just consider the sources and texts that were discussed by Mr. Pakbaz and Mr. Joodat,
they were treated so seriously. Like the researches in Sagha-Khane paintings, not considering
how deep they were and how many people continued that, they are important

In fact, they are missed after the revolution. They make some groups and go on, but they
can’t be seen easily as they are not serious enough and not lots of time has passed.
I still feel that we need a specific center to shape these movements

Modern and traditional art are not in contrast, they are contracting. We don’t make anything
from the zero point, we get something that exist and change it based on contemporary world

As there might be some changes in ideologies and perspectives, it can change as well, unless
it can’t update itself, then we will see its collapse. Therefore, the energy that exists in that
powerful atmosphere will present itself within different shapes

I can say that in Sagha-khane School this event took place and the traditional atmosphere
can be seen strongly. Sometimes you can’t see that objectively and
there is a trace of that in the work

So, this can be an interaction between tradition and modernism and these two can complete each other.

There are some works in contemporary world like stylish combination that need new media.
So, here we are faced with a very influential aspect of art and I don’t set any priority for that.
It depends on you that which of them you would choose as media. I don’t mean that I didn’t try,
but I felt that I am more convenient with painting and I can do it better.

And if one day I feel that I can
create other things, I would start it. They can not replace each other and again the tradition and
modernism are interacting which can help to improve the quality of art

Globalization means how we combine them. Are we destroying something or we are creating it?
Now I am sitting in front of you. How much my clothes are like three hundred years ago ones?
Mobile and media all of them are just like this.

The reality is that the universe is unique and is interacting and debating with us. We think that we are
affected by them. Look at Matis and Rembrandt works. The world is using us to enrich itself

Sometimes you have some values that are too close to you that you can’t see them. The lack
of self confidence will destroy what I have and accept it

I have to open my eyes and see the whole world as a general value that is necessary
for human life. In this atmosphere all the valuable things are worth for our life. The useless
ones will omit themselves.

For example, I say that Mr. Tanaveli has a turn over in his works. There are some small statues
in Isfahan shops. Someone like me, may not notice them , but he used them
in his works in a modern way.

I want to tell you that our world and its identity shows my wisdom toward life that let me use
them not only as a visual value. However, I don’t concern about to keep them and prevent
them from being destroyed

This value is not national, it can be international. We are standing somewhere that we have
something to be heard and the world is ready to hear us.

Part 09

Life and painting

Painting has been a remedy for me, it was a way to express myself. The reason that
I found tranquility in painting is that I was able to create something

see, they are not trivial matters, we need a way to express ourselves, to show that we exist.
Besides, in painting you are making something and at the end you will feel like
a mother whose child is walking infront of her

And this is very important in painting. Moreover, painting taught me how to watch the world.
I went to my hometown, the shepherd hold me and told me” Mr. Zakeri, I really love you and
I am proud of you” then he asked” what is your job?”

and I told him that I am a painter! Then when I wanted to explain him the meaning of painting.
Then I said, I left here 30 years ago, to cure my eyes and come back again!
During these years I was just trying to purify my eyes, now the
world is wonderful just because of my eyes

A drop of water, a leaf, nature, a flower, all of them seem more clear and even deeper.
I think that all of us pass a way from our mothers’ womb to the grave and choose
something for our life; some choose power, some pickaxe, some beauty, and some people
choose fame, but some people don’t choose anything and the others define a role for them.
But I chose painting

I chose painting from A point to B point and I have never quit that, because I love it.

I defined the word love differently. I called it being involved. Some people choose love,
they are the doer, the go for something and love it

I can’t say that I love painting, I mean I am involved with painting, it has absorbed me and
drag me and take me. Just like a child, he doesn’t know why he is painting but if you give
him a pencil, he would draw some lines eagerly

I want to tell you that a part of painting can be interpret logically. But lost of its part can’t be
described and I respect it

I find the idea and I manage it, I evaluate the composition and structure of the work. In the
middle of my painting, I let the unknown world and hidden emotions control the painting

In some part of the painting, I am involved with it but in some part, painting controls me.
It is a kind of interaction between the wisdom and experience and the memories of my childhood.
The hidden world and the world that we can see are interacting.

This quote by David Hokney is really interesting to me, he said “ maybe it’s the suffering
in painting that we feel tranquility” it means that sometimes, in the middle of suffering
I feel comfort

It means that while I am hiking and trying to reach the summit, I feel exhausted but I have
the commitment to keep on. I take this with a lot of problem, but this suffering
that takes me to the peak, makes me delighted

It is just like the crying that a new born baby has while being born and it shows that the
mother has suffered to give birth to a baby. Most of the time, I felt that this
happiness originated from a deep suffering and lives by me

It doesn’t mean that I am always happy, sometimes I am upset and drawn in my own thoughts.
The true me is that sad person. But I don’t show it, I express it more in the paintings

I even try to balance it at home, I mean I don’t try to be an artist at home, and show my feelings,
that is not hypocrisy. The car that you sit behind its wheel has two pedals, accelerator and brake

These two are totally different. With a proper interaction you will have a safe trip. This logic and
emotion keep the balance of my life. At first, I felt that I have to show these feelings in my family too

At home, logic and thinking help me; while in painting this is the true sad me that let me exist.
I have learned to understand what the atmosphere wants me to be.
I am not the same person all the time.

Painting is making meaning for me. It is taking the concepts from my life and giving me new ones.
Even from the perspectives that I have toward life. It changes my view

I think I shouldn’t stick to something and if I keep doing it, new concepts will appear in my life.
During my youth, I believed in hardworking, and I used to think that with my
hard work problems would be solved

But as I grew older I noticed that the river doesn’t go to the sea with hostility, it passes calmly and
all the way is full of stone but as it passes slowly, the stones won’t hurt it. The slogan,
the utopia is the sea and eventually it goes to the sea

That was what happened to me, it softened my idea and turned me to a kind of recycling machine
that before, when you gave it suffering, it would give you back suffering. But this machine
provides me the chance of changing. When I feed it with sorrow and suffering, it uses it for the work.

I have learned to be a good passenger and know that I haven’t get in the train in the first station.
Before me, many people had been in the train and went off it

I got in a station and I have a chance to visit the beauty and don’t think about the other trains.
Bad or run down, this is my train and I was thrown into it in a station

Pay attention and live with the people, in a station the doors will be opened and you
will be thrown out. I have travelled and I was taught that life is just a chance, a very short
chance that we are bestow. That is why I love life .

Part 10

Art and life (2)

The exhibitions teach me a lot. When I do a work, I will not know what is going on, until the
work is on the wall. When it is hanged on the wall, I will go and watch it as a viewer and
I will say that this is not mine anymore. Therefore,

the first trait of an exhibition is that I can find myself and figure out where I am and what happened.
The second one is that the painting is exposed to its viewers and
we can see this connection can be made

You can see the effectivity of the works. And somehow you get rid of the work. I mean,
you work and put it inside your workshop, this work is still on you

The work should be gone. As soon as it is gone and shown in exhibitions, the works will be
omitted from your project. There will make new space for new works. It is a kind of delivery,
giving birth to a child and now you can look at your child and see how is your child

Is it beautiful or not? But when I have exhibition, about a week I feel depressed and it is
just like giving birth…I am involved with my paintings.

Negative criticism is two kind. In one of them the critic insulted my work, but in his statement,
he had some positive points and I would even appreciate him. But in one case,
he hadn’t even seen the work or even understood it and there is no honesty in his criticism

So, I will be sad and regret the lack of interaction, may be there are other things for the critic,
but I tr y to understand the fact that people have different ideas
and point of view and they are allowed to abhor the works.

I really hope that human being be kinder toward themselves and others, I hope one day
the word “war” doesn’t exist. I know it is impossible, but gradually I can accept the
differences and confess that this is a part of universe. Molahatom had a work which
I always remember it. There is a circle with sand on it. And two hands are moving on it

One of the hands is like a comb and scratches the sand, whi le the other hand flattens it.
I feel the whole universe is like that. It gets you up and then it will destroy you. Birth and death,
darkness and brightness, rage and happiness

I may be too optimistic. But I always hope that human beings become kinder toward universe
and other human beings. I feel If I am looking for a kinder world, I should search it
inside me, and be kinder toward myself

This is far from being selfish. Before other approval, I have to say Ali thank you, and you were
great at doing it. And if I make a mistake, I will forgive myself and I won’t punish myself.

My biggest dream is fulfilling my painting career. I tell it frankly; I don’t want to be cliché and
I don’t know how to express it. I want to be like a three-years old kid who
wants a paper and pen to draw.

One I used to think that I can have my own workshop, as I started from nothing. When
I left university, I just had a plate, a fork and a spoon.
I had to start it from nothing and solve my financial crisis

I was thinking that when I had my own workshop and made my life, I would start painting.
But I noticed that I might not have enough time to do it. And I started it backward!
I am continuing my painting and I may reach all of them later.

I just want to paint, I love it….