Mani Gholami

My inspiration and motivation for painting and art spans over two decades. People and places around me have provided the subject and underlying theme of my work. Capturing the moments that make us human, feigned or real, in acrylic, pencil or photography is the passion behind my work. Unlike anything else around us, our “social veneer” is a purely human characteristic that no other being possesses. Thorough my paintings I try to break through this artificial “veneer” that is most noticeable in posed pictures. Faces and gestures of friends and people around us transmit a multitude of emotions, hopes and despairs; like the colors that I lay on paper or canvas.

At times I use the photos that I have taken and add a new dimension by emphasizing the colors, shapes and feelings that were perceptible and projected at that moment. I emphasize what may be not so apparent from glancing at the picture. The viewer feels the life within the frozen moment.

My hope and desire has been and remains to inspire the viewer to experience these moments through the infinite possibilities and beauty of a brush or pencil stroke. I wish to amplify these realities with my sense of “unreality” or imagination and create a visual world for the viewer that is more than the moment itself.

Mani Gholami