Smack down! Bra & match culottes
Panteha Abareshi is 17 years and attracts girls who murder you in your sleep Metaphorically, of course Abareshi characters are complex and portrayed with the kind of wisdom and stoicism that only comes from suffering and previous difficulties We recently corresponded to mental subject to physical illness, colored women as protagonists, and no happy endings.
MINNA GILLIGAN Hi, Panteha Where are you currently based, and do you like or do not like your specific locale.
Panteha ABARESHI I live in Tucson, Arizona It's weird, I guess, because even though I have lived here a long time, I'd do not ever say I'm not from Tucson, or is my hometown my home is here, but the town itself is just an incongruous splash of buildings on a vast expanse of desert the weather is good, even if I complain about the heat, I prefer cold in Arizona is a Republican state, although, if I drive behind a lot of cars with stickers Tr mp sometimes more than one, and there are certainly lots of stickers for car not ironic Ben Carson and Jeb Bush, and there are many negatives I could list out of town, but honestly, it's cheap, it's quiet, and there is enough art museums to keep me happy I t out well at all, and when I do, I like to go to the bookstore or shopping in thrift stores, but mostly coffee shops to trav ailler if Tucson is good, and it has everything you need now, especially since I'm going through financial planning and preparation fo r college, I have a better appreciation of life here that said, I am happy to from that I can not wait to live in a city that has real artistic culture booming, where the average age of residents is below 65 years, and where it's more to do than sit and throw cactus pedestrians.
I read your interview with Dazed you started your art practice after a hospital stay that attracted you to What the drawing Did you find therapeutic, distraction or a plug for help fight mental and physical challenges.
Yes, I started drawing my pain because my thalassemia sickle was so bad that I literally could not move anything but my hands My father brought me a sketch pad and some markers just to take my mind off of it I had never taken art classes, or really all great art does, so for a long time my room was nothing like what I wanted to do, I did not know how to draw on paper what I had in my mind, I pushed myself to draw every day, because I really love how it feels and my drawing began as a coping mechanism for my chronic physical pain, but now it is 100 percent a coping mechanism for my pain from a chronic mental illness that I lived with thalassemia sickle cell all my life, and it is not something I have to deal with physical pain is something I e u 17 long years to learn to tolerate very well the other depression I struggle with every day it is atrocious, it hurts, and my art is what I use to understand and organize my own thoughts, my sadness is I used to face, I am very happy that the thing I find most comforting in the world is also the thing I will be able to pursue as my career.
Your designs shine light on a long list of ideologies historically under-represented, including the vital representation of women of color in art and pop culture, de-stigmatizing mental illness and the gritty realities, not so romantic romance Let's start with the representation of women of color in your work with women of color that the majority of your characters without specific comment, you are emphasizing the fact that their presence should not be considered a radical inclusion, but rather something that should have been applied and standardized by now, and not in a purely symbolic way could you comment on that.
Yes, I want to say that my father was born in Iran, my mother in Jamaica I was born in Canada, I am an immigrant, through and through is painful and angering how this word is given such horrible connotations, but I'm proud my father raised me, and a very young age, I read all kinds of fiction, watching all kinds of movies I loved encyclopedias, and I spend hours leafing encyclopedias of classical art the obvious lack of color women protagonists, actors, characters and subjects in the paintings was not something I registered as a girl, but is certainly something that, looking back now I am aware upsettingly is aggression and exclusion that is felt poignantly There is a long -accumulated lack of women of color who distorted the standards of beauty, and thwarted decades of a movement to find empowerment when people of color were in the shows and movies I watched, they were mostly slightly different iterations of the same, t archetype IRED color characters rarely have depth beyond their complexion in art, it's the same thing I saw black people being placed distinctly intentionally as accessories, almost aim to normalize women of color as the subjects of art, especially in contemporary illustration and other visual work as photography and film, removes the discrimination that comes with WOC pouring in extreme or being hyper-present and grossly stereotypical or not present at all the problem is the objectification of people of color, not to mention the fetishization that leads a dehumanization in the eyes of society that is so normalized that generation after generation, it doesn t even register how their perceptions are distorted I started drawing as WOC early because I wanted to create what I missing.
With the way WOC and POC underrepresented are, WOC and POC with t weren mental illness, even a group that could be quantified because representation was nonexistent The same can be said for WOC and POC who identify with aromanticism and asexual, or lack of interest or need for privacy because of mental illness that I make art for myself first and foremost, and I express myself and my personal struggles through my work, but is amazing that so many black people relate to it, and can find comfort in it.
I immediately drew Knowing, all see the eyes of the characters you draw They seem wise beyond their years maybe teenagers to think deeply amid the activities of all just not completely reactionary days of daggers or thorny roses piercing their necks What are you portray in these portraits.
The girls I draw aren t supposed to be teenagers I do not try to pull a certain age, but only the women I'm capturing the wisdom, or more precisely the kind of wisdom that comes with a lot of suffering It is about pain reactions I mentioned that even though I have severe chronic pain, depression hurts more This is, unfortunately, very difficult for people to understand, and I face constant trivialization of my mental illness in my experience, it is because those who have never suffered from depression or anxiety just can t understand how a disease of the mind could be more painful than a disease of the body I can turn anyone and I can say the pain in my legs feel like a million pieces of glass being pulled across my flesh, or pain in the ribs feels like everyone is breaking slowly and over again but th No trying to articulate what the mental pain of immense sadness feels like when you do, it begins to look like those horrible ads for anti-depressa nt where a poorly animated cloud is following around some poor woman in a vest ugly and persimmons It is something that is a constant and frustrating obstacle for me, but I found that with my art I can express very precisely the nuances of anxiety comes with my mental illness.
The things that I draw, like knives and roses around the neck, bloody noses, they are tangible, the obviously painful things that are impossible to miss These are, for me, the physical embodiment of what depression feels like a reactionary expressions that you mention, I suppose it's me say that physical pain is a phase when experiencing such inexplicable pain of mental illness, but it is also a portrait of the kind numbness and emptiness that accompanies mental illness, a feeling that I live with forever.
Your comic tales, unlike your portraits, often explore the relationships and interactions love you depict representations without heart broken complex coupled with phrases like love is simply confusion confusion confusion, it is that I find in the culture pop, however, that in addition to this performance, you also get hit always with a happy ending you n give us a happy ending, I like a little Could you comment on that.
I do not give a happy ending because there aren t really all my art is personal to me, and I'm not happy I do not believe in love, I do not think love is beautiful, so my art I will never portray that draws many roses in my art while they're my favorite flower, I hate that they're almost intrinsically linked to love, and romantic so-sweet-it-makes-you-gag they're beautiful, strong flowers with thorns that can cut like little knives I love with roses in my work because they have this inherent symbolism, but tying them to gore and pain and the between this symbolism and de-romanticize the PAYS.
I do not believe at all in modern notions of romance, and as someone who identifies with asexuality and aromanticism, I think they're highly stigmatized and misunderstood if my lack of desire for intimacy and romance is because of my depression, he's feeling does not speak or taught outside of that, I also really believe how young people, especially girls, are taught to value, set priorities, and derive happiness of love is damaging and simply untrue as a young girl there was such an emphasis on finding the perfect man, having your dream wedding, moving and popping a baby pair dozen there is nothing wrong to choose, but to have taught that this is normal, and that anything else is abnormal and makes you less ideal is something that upsets me so, so deeply girls already have to pushing so hard to be ambiti them and to achieve these ambitions, and this kind of social pressure and more generatio ns it makes it much harder when I tell people that I do not want kids, and they tell me it is just a phase or immaturity, you have so much value away from the things that I prioritize like me, my career and the ability to travel and swim naked in the Riviera whenever I please.
But in all seriousness, what I paint in my work is an honest representation of my own frustration and struggles with intimacy and romance I get lots of questions about it, and people are saying that I should not be so dark, or I just haven t met the right person yet, and I hope that eventually the immediate thought won t be I have to change or grow the thing is, I really do not understand why it is so difficult for some to understand a lack of full interest in all things intimate and romantic Just as I believe that monogamy should be a choice, not the norm, but I am not change anytime soon, and I like the idea of continuing to make people uncomfortable.
Rookie Bad Girl Painter Panteha Abareshi, daughter Panteha, abareshi.