In elementary school, artist Amanda Kazemi would sit on the playground, watching the gray skies as they parted to reveal fleeting rays of light. “These overcast days symbolize life’s ebb and flow and inspire my black-and-white charcoal drawings,” she says. Through anthropomorphic animals, plants and people, Kazemi’s artwork explores themes from classic literature and fables, reflecting her Mexican-Iranian identity. “My art tells the story of my ongoing journey, shaped by community, solitude and curiosity,” says the artist.
Precarious, graphite, charcoal and soft pastel, 30 x 20 in.
In one of Kazemi’s recent pieces, titled Precarious, a woman sits on the ground resting her head inside the mouth of a coyote. “Sometimes I walk around in public and focus on the precariousities I encounter. There’s this rebalancing act constantly happening right before our eyes between life and death,” she says. “For example, we have our routines and continue to perform our routines with some deviations until one day we don’t. Not in a grim way, but in an interesting push and pull way, where we reverberate like plucked guitar strings around each other and make a rhythmic hum.”
Into the Shadow, charcoal and graphite, 30 x 20 in.
Another charcoal, Into the Shadow, depicts a woman walking through the desert at night, flanked by two giant armadillos. “It wasn’t until I reached 32 years old that I chose to be curious about the things that had been life-long pain points within myself. It can feel easier to ignore or push down emotions rather than facing them. In Into the Shadow, I try to harness my inner light, with the addition of the armadillo to represent ancestral power and beyond,” Kazemi says.
Vanitas, charcoal, graphite and gouache, 32 x 24 in.
The artist currently lives in Southern California. To see more of her work, visit www.amandakazemi.com. —
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