SARA NOWPARAST, LMFT,
Doctoral Candidate
Art has always amazed me in its different forms and varieties throughout my life. It reveals another great unknown capacity of humans. It is a mystery but known at the same time. Just like humans. As a therapist, who specializes in working with the immigrant community, I have been able to listen to many stories, amazing, mysterious, sometimes shocking stories, but in the end, they are all human stories. Humans amaze me too. They are different and vary. But, in the end, they all have something in common. Deep down, we all have the same needs and wants. Art speaks the human language. It shows us what we are looking for. Whether it is a painting, a piece of music, a poem, a calligraphy, or a picture, it speaks for itself. Art is emotion in action, and who are we without our emotions?
Humanity
(Calligraphy, 24” High x 18” Wide)
We humans have different life experiences depending on where on earth and in which family we have been born and grown up. Considering what happens in the world today, we still see injustice, discrimination, war, poverty and pain among our fellow humans in many parts of the world. We feel hurt, traumatized and saddened. As a therapist who specializes in working with the immigrant community, I have been able to see that no matter where we have come from, we are a whole and humanity is our common language.
This work is a calligraphy of a poem by our great poet Saadi Shiraz’s masterpiece:
“Human beings are members of a whole
In creation of one essence and soul
If one member is afflicted with pain
Other members uneasy will remain
If you have no sympathy for human pain
The name of human you cannot retain”