Michele Roohani

My friend Anahita Ghabaian, the owner of  Silk Road Gallery, invited  me to go and see her great photo collection at the Grand Palais. I went and discovered the most beautiful women of the world! I didn’t know many of the newcomers to the scene like Paolo Roversi:

The above photo reminds me of my friend, Maureen.

I liked his other-worldly portraits where even the nudes were not in your face!

A jewel of a photo for me was Brancusi’s Eileen on the bench of his studio; I have appreciated his sculptures for ever and his “sleeping muse” kept me company for years.

The highlight for me was the Silk Gallery’s Persian Women; I met the super talented Shadi Ghadirian with her new collection of Miss Butterfly (Shahparak khanom):

A graceful and delicate butterfly/woman gets trapped in the web of a spider…

I knew her for her “Ghajar” and “Like Everyday” collections:

The late Bahman Jalali’s “image of imagination” was watching me quietly from the wall:

Iranian photographers’ works are regularly presented to museums and other institutions everywhere thanks to the Silk Road Gallery ; I like Rana Javadi’s Termeh clad woman:

There was a gorgeous sun setting on Grand Palais that made everything glow in the golden hour; perfect for taking pictures!

After Iran I went to Africa starting from Egypt and Youssef Nabil’s taunting girls:

then to Morocco and Lalla Essaydi’s “I want to be Shirin Neshat when I grow up” image; there is something about the written text that fascinates me:

The great surprise were the other Africans like this beautiful portrait, by Soungalo Malé, of this girl in her sunday suit in 1960; she looks at you with modesty but elegance:

I fell in love with this vintage photo of Ian Berry’s African Collection; a small print that made me smile:

The energy of the place made me forget my aching feet so I plowed on…

I was happy to see Sissi Farassat’s  Andrea, swimming in a sea of sequins:

I love fashion photography and I wasn’t disappointed! Cathleen Naundorf’s Dior 2007 collection made me want to color it pink:

Kate Moss was omnipresent but I liked Annie Leibovitz’s protrait of hers (bellow); she is best friends with the camera and many of her portraits were shouting from multiple galleries!

I saw Leibovitz’s pilgrimage photos too and I loved them all; here is the one I like to include here with all its majesty:

On the other end of the spectrum was Chris Bucklow‘s a thousand points of light that reminded me of Castaneda’s Don Genaro!

I like big cities and skyscrapers so I easily connected with Gail Albert Halaban’s  “Dance studio” from her Out my window NY city collection. Put that on your wall and the whole world changes…

The sun was shining when I went in the Grand Palais,

and I came out when it was growing dark; the site of the Petit Palais in the Parisian “blue hour” was indeed majestic:

Visit the  Silk Road Gallery  here

I was blown away a couple of years ago by the work of the super talented Alireza Darvish, and I would like to share it with you; he is in love with books and the way he illustrates with them, makes every bibliophile swoon…

This is his Egyptian version:

I fell in love with Darvish’s “fish-book” below:

I am reading the new translation of Cervantes’ Don Quixote (my first time) so the following image rings closer:

Darvish becomes playful with his “interbooks”,

The problem of too many books and not enough time:

He’s having fun with the reverse situation too:

the one man book:

He uses books as bridges (I love the methaphor…),

Bu I still love Alireza Darvish’s illustrations when he becomes whimsical like in this one where the woman is reading to the mermaids:

I like his animals,

he gets poetic…

Don’t be fooled by the phantasmagorique side of Alireza Darvish, he has a darker side:

and a way darker side:

but he remains delightful and great to discover!

Visit his site here.

Take a look at his fantastic animations here.

In BBC here.

Abundant in nature, the color Green is Life and it represents peace, growth, renewal, health and serenity to me.

Dewing’s women are sublime in this chartreuse mist…

I like all shades of green:  lime, emerald, mint, sage, etc…Here are some fresh strawberry leaves in my backyard,

the elegant magnolia tree in my street,

the green shadow of this fuschia flower,

tired shoes on a shawl,

my green room,

two fish on this 11th century Persian ceramic,

and two naughty fish hiding under the water lilies:

and one fish on this green door,

a mean tequila shot with some limes:

a way gentler one,

I like the green man thinking,

and these beautiful women holding lights:

Shakespeare smiling behind a green fountain,

the lonely bike waiting,

my favorite tree (sycamore) leaves,

and least favorite, succulent plants.

How about these smart water plants who lure the beetles with food inside at 8 pm and eat them at 12 am?

Even coffee tastes better in a green atmosphere as Starbucks understood long ago:

A green bottle with a red soul:

I have more pictures of trees than anything else in my archives; there is a quiet majesty about a tree that has always stopped me in my daily hustle; this one is looking in the mirror:

a green Buddha,

an exquisite Delahaye ,

Green luck,

green food,

beautiful narcissus,

last but not least, green hope…

“من چه سبزم امروز و چه اندازه تنم هشیار است…”

“How green am I today
And how alert is my body”

“Que je suis verdoyant,
Et qu’il est alerte mon corps”

Sohrab Sepehri

p.s. all pictures but the last one are from my personal archives.

This is a small clip I made of these images with the beautiful “THIS” song of Brian Eno:

I wish there was a global new year’s resolution for a more peaceful, greener, bluer, less sanguinary year than 2007 – I like this image I made based on the work of Hunt Rettig – it’s quietly cheerful.

This is my sister showing her affection in the first moments of the new year!

My Alma Mater, USC won the Rose Bowl today (again)

Now on a more sober note:

Putin (the quasi-tsar) really scares me – China scares everybody.

I am crazy about scarves. This is one of my few indulgences: silk scarves to wear around my neck. One of my favorites is this Hermès piece:

It inspired me to make this card which is available for purchase :

and this t-shirt, available in several colors :

I have this resurfacing nostalgic feeling about snow every winter in southern california; being born here, my son doesn’t miss the snow much, but I, being born on a snowy December first, in Mashhad, Iran, miss it a lot…The quiet beautiful snow who always speaks softly…

There is this short novel I read a few years back called Neige (snow in french) and of course the great book of my friend Jean-Michel Maulpoix called Pas sur la neige. “Chaque flocon répète: nous n’irons plus au ciel.” (every snowflake repeats: we’re not going back to the sky)

I don’t know the name of the photographer of the above picture but I figured I would throw it in for all of you homesick persians.

Ok people I was just joking when I said I was going to have plastic surgery! I talked about the United States’ dire economic situation (true), having a kid in law school (true) and needing cosmetic surgery (maybe true but won’t do it) to make you guys buy my stuff.

These are my 2007/2008 holiday cards:

I hope that you had a good thanksgiving – I always cook two turkeys no matter how many people are coming to my house (one in the oven and one in a pot) and this year wasn’t an exception – great persian stuffing camouflaged as the usual stove top…

“Thanksgiving is when gluttony becomes a patriotic duty.” To me, this is one holiday that is not tinted with religion or acute nationality.

The real turkey this week will be president Bush going to Annapolis when thousands are protesting in Jerusalem and Gaza against the talks.

Mike Luckovich sums it up in the above cartoon; I like Bob Gorrell’s too:

This is a shameless plug to sell my posters, my t-shirts, my images in general; my métro café poster has finally gone on sale on the major print stores.

A framed version’s been on my kitchen wall for a few months since the artist (meaning me) gets a preview/bonus set before all of you mere mortals! Remember, I am trying to be shameless, cocky, insolent, cheeky, impudent, etc…

You can buy most of my work on demand from RedBubble.com; they have 80 works of mine that you can purchase in many different sizes and formats. They even have T-shirts that i have designed.

These are some of my posters that you can find on Allposters.com, Art.com, Artselect.com and many other art sites on the net.

I love my iPod! It’s ancient but I don’t want to get a new one yet; I have to admit that having a portable music library has not been my primary concern but the podcasts…oh the podcasts…

Many of my friends have asked about subscribing to podcasts with an iPod (or any other MP3) – this is how I listen to my news from around the world – it’s like TiVo-ing your favorite radio shows; you have to install itunes and take it from there:

1) if you don’t already have itunes download it for free at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
2) install it
3) go to itune store/podcast http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcasts.html
4)search for shows you like halfway through the screen:

And the rest is pretty easy. Here are some of the things I listen to: NPR morning news, scientific american , slate magazine, 2000 ans d’histoire, in our time with melvyn bragg, Radio Lab, NYT’s Frank Rich/Maureen Dowd , etc… I do download a “medley” of different stuff and I hardly listen to music on my ipod but that’s just me – the beauty of it all is that I can listen to what I want when I want and with a little gadget (iTrip), it even plays on my car radio.

Five minutes in the morning to download the podcasts from my computer and this can carry me through Life‘s rush-hour…Happiness is a lot of small/little things.

Now that i have your attention, I have an important announcement: you can buy many of my images from this fabulous site. You can get them as cards, mounted prints, canvas prints, even framed. My major posters are still being sold on all the “art” sites of course.

I have been waiting to get more of my images on redbubble but I think that it’s time to tell my friends about it; I will be adding to the batch little by little.

The models here are the beautiful Joey House, House of Petals‘ owner/actress and a friend, Mark.

“I can resist everything except temptation.” Oscar Wilde

The new Ang Lee film, Lust Caution, was released last friday and the NC17 rating is already making it more important than it really is. NY Times article made me want to see it. When it comes to TV, the HBO’s “tell me you love me” is an example of unnecessary, gratuitous sex shown on screen. I really don’t need to see Jane Alexander in an oral sex scene but that’s just me…

I went to Vasa’s studio a couple of years ago and fell in love with his exquisite sculptures. His work is awe-inspiring in its simplicity, vivid colors and elegant lines.