Showing: October 20th – January 15th 2017
Showing at: Grove Salon, 1483 Solano Avenue, Albany CA
Salma Arastu’s work in the Golden Moments series is greatly inspired by Rajput and Mughal paintings, a style of miniature paintings or book illustrations popular in India and Persia. Since childhood, Arastu has been drawn to these precious jewel-like paintings because of their intricate details and lyrical compositions.
In this series of compositions on square boards, Arastu makes the stories and moments of everyday life she paints come alive by giving them three-dimensional effects. The title for the series, Golden Moments comes from reflecting on her own cherished memories from her life journey, her personal golden moments. With these paintings, Arastu is telling her stories, from childhood in India, travels to Iran and Kuwait after marriage and her eventually settlement in California.
Salma Arastu was born in Rajasthan, India and has been exhibiting internationally since graduating with a masters in Fine Arts from MS University, Baroda, India in 1974.
Change has been a constant for Salma throughout her life and career as an artist. Born into the Sindhi Hindu tradition in her native India, Salma later in life embraced Islam, through her marriage. Eventually settling in California, Arastu used her life experiences and memories to create scenes of everyday life around the world.
Salma Arastu is an accomplished artist with almost 40 solo shows to her credit, and has won several awards over her career including East Bay Community’s fund for artists in 2012. She currently has three sculptures exhibited in public places and three books published of her poems and paintings.