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Sanaz Mousavi Dillard
Painter
USA
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Born in Tehran, Iran, January 1984
Master of Arts (MA), American Studies, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA
Bachelor of Arts (BA), English Literature, Azad University, North branch, Tehran, Iran
She moved to Atlanta, USA in 2014. Her extensive readings on philosophy, literature, and art encouraged her to choose art as her career. She started using her paintings as a tool to express her feelings, emotions, and Life Views. Her paintings have been exhibited Internationally. Sanaz is currently working on her autobiography, a project on Rumi, and a children's' book.
She spends most of her time painting in her home studio, as well as teaching watercolor painting and calligraphy.
Solo Exhibitions:
- Menagerie on Main gallery, Canton, GA (permanent gallery), a solo show of "Tree Dreams Collection", September 2022
Group Exhibitions:
- The Reeves House gallery, Woodstock, GA, May 2020
- The Reeves House gallery, Woodstock, GA, October 2020
- "Love my Body", MADAS Gallery, Milan, Italy, January 2021
- Tranquility Fine Arts, Woodstock, GA, January 2021
- "Contemporary Group Exhibition", Brick Lane gallery, London, UK, February 2021
- Persian Cultural Center of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, April 2021
- The Reeves House gallery, Woodstock, GA, May 2021
- Tranquility Fine Arts, Woodstock, GA, March 2021
- "Demo", MADAS Gallery, Milan, Italy, September 2021
- The Reeves House gallery, Woodstock, GA, April 2023
- "Spring Group Exhibition", Caroun Art Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada, May 2023
- "Contemporary Group Exhibition", Brick Lane gallery, London, UK, August 2023
LOVE MY BODY
Milan 2021
Critical text by Giorgia about “Hair Down”
Hope you're doing well. Here's the preview of my critical text. I chose to use many of your statements.
The second work on display is entitled "Hair Down". Once again, a psychological and spiritual influence is clear. In particular, the Yin and Yang symbol is visible on the left side of the composition. The subject, however, is an upside-down woman, the head is facing down, and her wonderful colored hair appears, at first glance, like a voluminous skirt. The focal point of the composition are the bare breasts, the central theme of the work.
The artist chooses to pay homage to women, who have survived breast cancer. The artist herself worked for years with patients afflicted by this terrible disease, enduring with them fear and pain.
Sanaz herself says:
“The five different colored locks of hair represent divisions of consciousness; the figures within these waves represent additional ideas, emotions, memories, and whimsical fantasies. For example, the birds are spiritually significant animals in much of ancient Persian literature, but they also represent the fears of women with breast cancer, as I personally have a phobia of birds. The heart and pomegranates represent love, fertility, and intimacy. The woman’s scar under one breast represents pain, loss, and healing. It is juxtaposed next to a healthy “normal” breast, to suggest the unbalanced state of life or one’s self.”
Artist Profile by: ELLEN SAMSELL SALAS
Expressing "Beauty, Wisdom and Love"
Always seeking truth, Persian-American artist Sanaz "Sunny" Mousavi Dillard has embraced risks and carved her own path. As a child, she was punished for portraying mullahs as thieves who steal people's freedom. At 14, she navigated Tehran's trains and buses, hoping to meet Hossein Elahi Ghomshei, the scholar and philosopher she had heard on the radio who would become her spiritual mentor. Freeing herself from an arranged marriage at 17, Dillard raised her son as a single mother while waiting 14 years to join her parents in Georgia.
In her quest to find and express truth, Dillard has studied Persian poetry and Greek philosophy as well as the works of American writers Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. Accomplished in watercolor and acrylic painting, the Woodstock resident has found inspiration in American folk art and in modern artists like Marc Chagall.
Happily remarried and now the mother of two sons, Dillard also teaches watercolor and Persian calligraphy.
Abstract and surreal styles allow Dillard to find and express beauty, wisdom, and love.
"I don't search for fame. I look into myself and look for art that has human values and accepts that imperfections, ugliness, and beauty are hand-in-hand in life," said Dillard."
When beginning a work, Dillard sometimes is driven by an event that triggers emotion. Other times, as in her recent depiction of the Chicago skyline, she familiarizes herself with a subject, researching and living with it. But once she applies paint to canvas, she frees her imagination - her connection to the "divine force" within herself - and allows the work to take shape.
Most of Dillard's paintings burst with bright hues such as magenta, yellow, green, and turquoise. Applying the paint to her canvas with brushes and palette knives, she creates rhythm and movement through the interplay of lines, crosshatching, smudges, and dripping. Colors, shapes, and textures dance and vibrate, moving the viewer's eye.
Sometimes, she applies the paint thickly to create bold textures and rich designs.
Other times, she creates flat surfaces and achieves a transparent effect.
Deeply attuned to women's struggle for equality, Dillard might depict female figures, who blend with other elements, visible yet invisible, waiting to be found and celebrated. Other figures, animals, trees, leaves, flowers, and even text join her abstract strokes and shapes, creating layers of meaning that enable viewers to find their own connections to her art.
"When I paint, I am showing people my heart. It takes a lot of courage," she explained. "The artist puts everything out there, hoping we can connect. I care about what the viewers think, but at the same time, I know, 'This is me.'"
For more information or to view additional works by Dillard, please visit AsheqArt.com.
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