Since childhood I have both written and drawn expressively, and I count among my favorite artists those who combine the two modes—Goya, for example in the Caprices; the satirist Honore Daumier, Kenneth Patchen and others, including the long tradition of miniature paintings embellishing poetry and epics in the Persianate world.

I have backgounds and Master’s degrees in Middle Eastern Studies, with a focus on Iran, and Education, centering on Special Education at the elementary level.

During the 90s and early 2000s I worked as a teaching artist with the Westchester Arts Council, BOCES programs, and other groups, doing mostly what I named Eye Touch/Low Tech Animation, with both adults and schoolchildren. This was before digital and computer animation became the easy go-to, and we used analog video cameras with a tripod and some tech tricks I learned from other animators.  I had honed my traditional animation skills working at Iranian Educational Television in Tehran in the 1970s.

My objective now is to offer people simple but profound ways to access their own creativity, to connect and to feel part of something bigger than any of us—and to continue to nurture that process in myself as well.