Iranian couple pair talents for paint and poetry in exhibit

International couple Behzad Dowlatshahi and Samira Nozari are published poets and painters known in Iran. To know their art is to know them, they said.

That art is on display through June 21 in the exhibit “Fusionaroma” at the Rainbow Library, 3150 N. Buffalo Drive.

“People can see you through your work,” Nozari said. “In art, you are absolutely yourself. Art lets you get closer to your soul.”

The title “Fusionaroma” indicates the fusion of cultures and different kinds of art, such as poetry, paintings and satire, with a touch of the aromatic flavor of cultural distinction. It features various styles — abstract, expressionism, conceptual, figurative, realism and wet-on-wet (alla prima) paintings with oil and acrylic on canvas.

View visited the couple’s northwest home as they prepared for the show. Paintings were in every room, some not complete, with paint brushes and paints on drop cloths nearby. Dowlatshahi’s art was next to Nozari’s, but the distinction was apparent. Dowlatshahi prefers a modern style on larger canvases. His wife is more into contemporary art on a smaller scale. Each has nine pieces in the show and one painting done in collaboration. This is their first exhibition together.

“The larger canvas, it gives more freedom to him,” Nozari said. “For modern painting, you do not need to follow rules. In this space, if it’s enough, it’s enough, but for modern painting, you can do changes. If you want to add something, you have more space.”

“Fusionaroma” was planned to also include the couple’s framed poetry, as their writings evolved from the same creative root. But logistics and lack of time foiled that, so the art stands alone. Still, clever observers may glean a poetic sense of the pieces.

That’s because both think of themselves as writers first and foremost, with their art second. Each has published three poetry books. Nozari is working on her fourth.

One cannot talk about the couple’s art without also talking about their poetry.

Nozari said there is little difference between creative writing, painting and music.

“Art is an international language, (so is) opera,” she said. “… If you ask me which is closer to the soul of you, I would say writing. There are some things you can express better in writing, especially in poetry. And there are things you can express (better) with color. They complete each other. I think poetry, painting and music, they all three are related to each other. It’s difficult to separate the boundary between them, they’re so close.”

Lee Mallory, a poet and retired professor, can relate to that observation.

“The media that we use to meld imagination and experience in order to make sense of life are myriad,” he said. “For example, to do an optimal performance poetry show, I always have a related musical segment, or even better, an integrated musical backing. … (any art) gives us a chance for us to rediscover those universals that bind us as human beings.”

Mallory said that in Paris in the 1880s, every artist celebrated a poet or group of poets and came to symbolize or champion a certain poetic school. Artists painted the images that a kindred poet put forth.

Nozari grew up in Iran and had her first short story published when she was 14. After that, she said poetry beckoned her. Her first poetry book, “Tavalodam ra Tanhayam,” was published in 2010. In June 2010, a debut presentation of her first book was done in Artists’ Garden, a cultural center in Iran dedicated to famous artists and their work.

She met Dowlatshahi at an artist event in Iran, and they fell in love. They got married 11/2 years ago in Las Vegas. She said she was excited to do an exhibit with her husband, especially since she sees Americans as artistic people. She said coming to the U.S. has influenced her artistic endeavors, and she has improved.

“It’s how I see my new life, with new eyes,” she said. “My first painting, it was … more realist style, but here I do more modernist. It affects my creativity a lot.”

Dowlatshahi is a satirical writer, published in many magazines, and has had a number of painting exhibits in New York City. His first collection of poems, “A Poem for a Line,” was published in 2005. He is working on a science fiction screenplay.

Dowlatshahi said he starts a painting “without any preconceived ideas of what I want to paint. I let the canvas and brush lead me. I start the work from blank and nothingness. When the brush touches the canvas, I let it lead me. … Every step I take finds the next step.”

Dowlatshahi and Nozari have had their inner creative inclinations ramped up since moving to Las Vegas in fall 2012. They said it’s the abundance of light. The sunshine has even led them to pick up their canvases and paints and go to W. Wayne Bunker Family Park for an afternoon of creative expression.

They plan to repeat “Fusionaroma,” this time with the poems, in New York City.

The exhibit is on display during regular library hours. For more information, call 702-507-3710 or visit lvccld.org.

Contact Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan at [email protected] or 702-387-2949.