Meet Farima Fooladi: Visual Artist and Art Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Farima Fooladi and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Farima, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
t was not an easy decision, and definitely, it is not an easy career path to follow. For as long as I remember, I have taken the curvey road and welcomed the challenge to my life. I never saw myself doing anything outside of the arts. I need the intellectual call that art has to offer, and I strive for its labor. Going back to my studio helps me to line up all the dissonances of the outside world. Painting has saved me over and over.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I address displacement by delving into emotional and historical layers of public space and memory. The way social and political changes transform civic spaces is of particular interest to me. I create large-scale landscape paintings. I call them idealized landscapes borrowed from the Chinese landscape painting tradition. In my idealized landscapes, I do not paint real places but imaginary ones. I use architectural elements as an entry point. I rebuild a space by recalling the images. I don’t mind if the result grows distant from reality. The atmosphere I create in my paintings emerges from the world’s interference and my disrupted memory of the past. I look at architecture to find our time narrative. I create multi-layered mixed media paintings to emphasize the sense of space and time. Swimming pools evolved to be the focal point in my recent works. I was born in Tehran in a transition period from Monarchy to the Islamic Republic and theocracy. I remember how buildings and people changed gradually. I remember homes transformed into underground spaces. I remember how architectural open spaces became covered with materials, and transparent windows became matte. The first apartment I lived in growing up had a communal swimming pool, which never came to fruition. Due to the regime change, and to make it more conservative, they turned it into a garden. Who dare wear swimsuits anymore? I noticed how social and political changes transformed the city I grew up in and shaped my urban experience and relation to human-made architectural spaces. By seeing what I noticed about my past, I become more aware and curious about my everyday urban interactions. The current series results from stories, events, scenery, and memories that Houston contains and reveals softly to a newcomer combined with my memories of road trips and city life in Iran. I am traveling between near and far lands, similarities and contrasts, and within past and present in these paintings.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Houston has many beautiful spots to explore that I am still discovering. One of my favorites is to visit Menil Collection, Menil Drawing Institute, and Cy Twombly Gallery, all located along Branard St., followed by a take-out from the Lua Viet Kitchen and picnic in Menil Park. Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My family has been my rock, the platform that holds me stable and safe mentally even from far away. After that, my Penn State Community and all the beautiful people offered me friendship and mentorship when I moved to the US. I’ll name three people who keep supporting me with their generosity Professor Simone Osthoff, Professor Helen O’Leary, and Professor John Bowman, all fantastic artists and mentors.

Website: http://www.farimafooladi.com/

Instagram: @farimafooladi

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farima-fooladi-6babba73/

Twitter: @FarimaFooladi

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/farima.fooladi/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s8Xl4mxg3s

Image Credits
Shahin Varshosaz Stephanie Swindle Ardalan Mirshani