10 Questions with Hanieh Jalali (Honey)

Her name is Hanieh, but family and friends call her Honey. She was born in Tehran, Iran, in May 1978. Honey is a multidisciplinary Iranian artist based in Calgary, Alberta, since 2020. With 20 years of experience in Graphic Design, she has Master's and Bachelor's degrees from the Art and Architecture Azad University of Tehran.

She focuses on art, painting, graphic design, photography, installation, digital painting, poem, and theatre, as well as artistic production and cultural promotion. She has been teaching Graphic Design for 15 years at university and expressing herself through Contemporary art, photography, collage, illustration, and poetry, which is healing for her. Even during the pandemic, Honey has built an impressive list of accomplishments and projects. She explores memories, good and bad, through creative multimedia artworks. She wants to show stories about individuals, humanity, suffering, love, and real life all over the world.

We live in troubled times, Covid, wars, difficulties, and losses. What trouble is the greatest?

We still don't care enough about one another. We are so ready to build walls between ourselves and others instead of bridges. She tries to show her pains, your pains, to share them, maybe find a cure for them, healing through art.

Honey says, "We need to support each other."

@honeyworldwide22

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. Who are you, and how did you start experimenting with images?

I am an Iranian multidisciplinary artist with 20 years of experience in Graphic Design, Master's and Bachelor's degrees from the Art and Architecture Azad University of Tehran. With a focus on art, painting, graphic design, photography, material installation, and theatre, as well as artistic production and cultural promotion. I taught Graphic Design for 15 years at the university level, at Tehran Azad University of Art and Architecture, Share Ray Azad University of Art and Architecture, and The University of Applied Science and Technology (UAST).
I love contemporary art, photography, collage, illustration, and poetry. I was born in Tehran, in the incredible country of Iran, with its diverse climate. I could ski in the mountains and then fly to the coast and swim on the same day! I love to travel, which allows me to see the pleasure of nature and people with a great diversity of cultures, customs, traditional costumes, and art in all its forms.
I arrived in Calgary on December 19, 2020, in the middle of the world lockdown. I had two opposing feelings: happiness and fear. I was flying high for coming back to freedom in Canada because I did not have any freedom as an activist fighting for women's rights in my homeland. On the other hand, for a long time, I was puzzled about immigrating to this new country and felt an immense fear of closing all the doors of the past and opening a new life, making new connections and friendships.
I've been drawing since early childhood. Colour, shape, and words are my magical language that helps me express my feelings in silence. I can create this way without boundaries imposed politically in Iran, and also imposed culturally in any country where expectations of art are set. Art may be assumed to only communicate positive, happy circumstances, but there is much more depth to reality and facing difficult situations.

How would you define yourself as an artist?

I want to show stories about individuals, humanity, suffering, love, and real life. We live in troubled times, facing COVID, wars, difficulties, and losses. What trouble is the greatest? We still don't care enough about one another. We are ready to build walls between ourselves and others instead of bridges, and we need to support each other. I try to show my pain and your pain, to share them, and bring healing through art.

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your artistic routine when working?

Many things inspire me to create my work. I learn much from art history. Studying the history of art has deepened my artistic expression. Art is not just painting beautiful flowers, colourful pets, or nude figures. This is just a starting point to come into the world of art. Simply put, I can say people and life inspire me. Before I start a new project, I usually write about the subject that I am passionate about at that moment. I write it in poetry form, and it helps develop the project into a visual art form.

You work across multiple mediums, what is your preferred one?

 I choose the medium depending on the project or story I want to tell.

What messages do you want to convey with your works?

I want to express my emotions, philosophical situations about real life, humanity's issues with materialistic possessions, politics, and women's rights.

How do you differentiate your work from the rest? In other words, what do you feel makes it unique and truly your own?

There is a unique perspective in the way I share my story and others' stories, even though the subject is often similar. How I work is different from other artists, yet we are all connected in some ways.

Your series My Pillow uses the pillow as a metaphor of a space. How did you come up with this idea?

My pillow is my immigration story, the only close friend I could talk to and trust without judgment. My pillow, when I remember my journey, is my close friend. Hugging together supports me as I can tell all my stories to her - stories of first love, betrayal, broken heart stories, forgiveness, secrets. It becomes more than just sharing stories; it becomes my therapy.

Do you find that the shift to digital exhibitions and art fairs has helped you promote your work?

I can show and perform my art to the world; even though having an in-person exhibition is a wonderful opportunity, digital exhibitions help put my work to a bigger audience.

What do you think about the art community and market?

I am more interested in the art community and how we, as artists, can support each other, reaching new audiences. The art community is more vital to the world nowadays than we can imagine, and we still need to be supported and better recognized by organizations at large.

Finally, any projects you are looking forward to for this year?

I want to continue to work on My Pillow Series and a new project as a maker in residence at a local maker-space in Calgary, called Fuse33.