ABOUT SARA
Mixed media artist, exploring the Islamic spiritual heritage through paint
I'm Sara a mixed media artist and a homeopath for two decades before that.
My paintings explore the 99 Names of Allah and the wider Arabic literary tradition, through richly layered mixed media artworks collected internationally and exhibited across Amman, from the Zara Centre to Jacaranda Images. My story has been featured in Beth Kempton's bestselling Wabi Sabi: Japanese Wisdom for a Perfectly Imperfect Life, and my work in Empowering Women Through Painting: Stories & Paintings of 88 Women. I discovered my passion for painting late by a very unexpected twist of turns. This story is worth telling.
It took me a long time to find this work. For years, I was totally oblivious to my slumbering creativity. It's only in hindsight that I recognize it was with me all along, albeit lurking silently in the background. It found expression in different guises, appearing at various stages of my journey.
Sometimes you let go of what really lights up your soul, believing you ‘should’ be doing something else.
I now recognize that I loved arts and crafts as a child. Yet this brief interlude was all too quickly forgotten when I entered a very dynamic phase of my life at fifteen. I started fencing, which eventually led me to explore the classical Japanese martial arts of Kendo, Iaido and Jodo. Training with some of the top masters in Japan, I immersed myself wholeheartedly in my chosen craft. An intense period of shugyo (deep mind-body training) ensued, learning, teaching as well as successfully competing internationally. I also got back into horse back riding during this period. Dressage, the equestrian art is another of my passions.
In many ways this chapter was the keystone for what was to come. It taught me how to learn and instilled in me the importance of discipline and a strong work ethic. By this time however I had moved back home to Jordan and had a young family to look after. Juggling domestic life and a rigorous training schedule was challenging to say the least.
Knowing when to course correct is crucial.
At some point along the way, everything fell apart. An inner voice had quietly been urging me to slow down and explore the healing arts. I ignored it to my detriment. The faint inner alarm bell became louder but it was too late. I experienced severe burn out and fell into a very deep, dark hole.
Sometimes the hardest lessons you have to face are blessings in disguise.
I was being called to seriously reevaluate the way I was living. This experience rekindled an old desire to explore a more holistic way of being. Thus began my exploration into the fascinating world of homeopathy. I spent the next 10 years studying this healing art and became a homeopath. That in turn led me to discover in a very circuitous unexpected way, my love for painting at 45!
Colour literally burst into my life and to my delight, turned my life upside down!
Since then, the studio has become the centre of my working life. Colour arrived first and then, gradually, the subject that everything had been leading toward: my own Islamic spiritual heritage, and the Arabic literary tradition I grew up inside. The Hu Collection - an ongoing meditation on the 99 Beautiful Names of Allah - began there, and the work has kept unfolding since: the Athar miniatures, the contemplative Portraits, and a new body of work exploring Al-Busiri's Burda, currently underway.
If the work speaks to you, the collections are the best place to begin. You can also see where the paintings have been shown on the Exhibitions page — or write to me directly; I answer every message myself.
From my studio in Amman - thank you for being here.
Sara
