Thai Art & Illustrations by Yasaman Haghighat

The language of creativity has always been my strongest point and I want to be able to express my stories, my background, my fears and my happiness through the language of Art (Yasaman Haghighat)

Yasaman Haghighat is a 27 year-old Thai-Iranian artist born and raised in England. Since her childhood, she has been artistic and very much interested in mythical creatures and fantasy worlds. Hence, her art works are very much inspired by her interest in mythology.

Thai Art by Yasaman Haghighat

Ramakien character Hanuman by Yasaman Haghighat

Yas studied English and Theatre.  Thus, she spent most of her time with theatrical societies sewing costumes, painting set and designing marketing and publicity. However, Yas is also an English teacher. Hence, after working in an international school, she went back to her roots and moved to Thailand for three years, where she was a primary school teacher in her home town of Chanthaburi.

Fan with peacock illustration by Yasaman Haghighat

With her younger students, she did a lot of arts and crafts. For instance, she taught them how to sew, how to create shadow puppets, making art from recycling, drawing still life, fashion shows and much more. While she was in Thailand, she spent a lot of time around temples with her family, who are very traditional Thai. Her grandparents told her many mythological stories from Thailand, which were very inspiring to her.

Buddha illustration by Yasaman Haghighat

What is more, when her mother bought her a set of Ramayana books, Yas was captivated by all the amazing characters in it. In addition, she saw some Thai dance and the marvellous costumes stuck with her.

Kinnari, the half-bird half-human divine musician by Yasaman Haghighat

Yas’ heritage is a Thai mother and an Iranian father – both cultures are full of rich history and mythology. Hence, Yas loves mythology because of all the beautiful morals and ethics they imply. She likes how you can learn the values of a society from reading their ancient stories. That is to say, you can learn about their traditions and honours from a simple nursery rhyme, or a story!

Colourful elephant by Yasaman Haghighat

Naga, the mythical snake by Yasaman Haghighat

Thus, her main inspiration is story telling which is an important tradition in every culture; Yas has grown up with stories from England, Iran and Thailand. Thus, she likes to spread her mix of culture through her art which is her way of story telling.

Furniture coffee table by Yasaman Haghighat

Side table with elephant painting by Yasaman Haghighat

Since returning to England this year, she has been slowly working on her art – She hand draws illustrations for greeting cards as well as hand painting fans, furniture and household items such as bowls or coffee coasters.

Coffee coasters ‘Fruits’ by Yasaman Haghighat

Coasters with elephant painting by Yasaman Haghighat

Finally, Yasaman Haghighat will be exhibiting her art works in Bristol at the Totterdown Arts Trail. This will be from 20th -22nd November 2015. For more information, please check out her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/yas.haghighat/ and Twitter: https://twitter.com/yas_haghighat

Yours, Sirinya