PROFILE: Golbanou Moghaddas
San Fransisco-based Iranian artist, Golbanou Moghaddas grew up in the Caspian sea region of Iran. Her love for storytelling and art were instilled in her at an early age, by her parents; her father, an engineer, introduced her to Persian calligraphy, and taught her to draw a straight line without a ruler. Her mother, a self-taught artist, read her stories that they would both illustrate together in watercolors.
She is drawn to the traditions of Persian manuscripts that incorporate poetry and painting. In her view, the delicacy and repetitive patterns presented in manuscripts, have a strong connection to the art of Etching; her primary medium as an artist.
In her etchings, animals are used as metaphors to tell a story indirectly. As in traditional manuscripts, birds, goats, deer, and floral decorations make appearances in her prints, to tell a story. While inspired by those traditional elements - including bird characters from Farid Attar’s “Conference of the Birds” - she also chooses creatures, like birds that she sees in the Bay area where she currently lives.
Through her visual depictions and the metaphoric power of animals as representatives, she is channeling her own reflections on this world; highlighted moments in her life’s journey, her own immigrant experience, and her longing for Place.
See her current prints available for purchase here