The Traveler

Issue date: 9/3/08 Section: Life & Style

Media Credit: Veronica Pucci Artist Golsa Yaghoob stands in front of her piece, "The Long Wait." "Veiled Presence" contains 23 pieces of artwork.

Twenty-three haunting, large-scale paintings in muted tones are displayed prominently in the Fine Arts Center Gallery. The somber collection, titled "Veiled Presence," is the first featured collection of the master of fine arts thesis exhibitions.

For Golsa Yaghoobi, the artwork not only functions as her thesis presentation, but it also serves as a personal show that demonstrates her frustration and anger in being raised in Iran where freedom was confined.

"Veiled Presence" uses a monochromatic color palette. Yaghoobi chose to work in black because the color symbolizes "sadness and mourning as well as the traditional color worn by women in Iran," she said. "It contrasts the colorful Western lives."

Born and raised in post-revolution Tehran, Iran, Yaghoobi grew up in an open-minded family and had a Westernized upbringing, she said. Although she was "not subjected to the religious pressures experienced by many Iranians, I had not experienced true freedom in the many routine activities of daily life," said Yaghoobi, according to her artist statement.

To be an artist living in Iran is difficult, especially if it's a woman, Yaghoobi said.

"The art studies there is so limited," she said. "At school, you need to research mostly by yourself." Contrarily, art studies in the U.S. enables "you [to] express yourself freely without any fear of punishment."

Yaghoobi's studies at the UA are her first trip to the U.S., she said.

"My father encouraged me to study in the [U.S.]," said Yaghoobi, who contacted many art teachers at various schools. She settled to study at the UA in 2004 because she found the professors to be friendlier, she said.

"I was not able to speak English, and the teachers [at the UA] were patient with me," said Yaghoobi, who spent six months taking intensive language classes. She then assumed her art studies in 2005, she said.

In preparation for her MFA exhibit, Yaghoobi spent a year to come up with the subject matter and sketched her ideas. She devoted two months of last summer to paint and produced 23 pieces for "Veiled Presence," she said.

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