Noruz in Paris with Venus and Samad, the goldfish

It’s the first day of spring and the Persian new Year of 1392 starts with Noruz (No: new, Ruz: day):

Norouz 2013 michele roohani

We are celebrating in Paris with a newly converted Venus,

Noruz 1392 haft seen michele roohani

I have extensively written about the Noruz (or Nowruz, Norooz) before in my blog, so if you’ve been with me in the past 4/5 years, you must know all about the items that go on the Noruz spread.

haft seen persian norooz michele roohani

The famous “haft seen” of 7 S’s:

Nowruz goldfish samad michele roohani

My fish, Samad (his name has nothing to do with the S’s… ;)), has been with us since two Noruz’s ago and he is happy to play his role this year with the famous Haji Firouz , the politically incorrect Persian messenger of the New Year:

haji firouz nowruz 1392 michele roohani

Haji Firouz’s face is covered in soot and he is wearing bright red clothes and hat. People consider it only as a face paint and there is no racial implication.

Nowruz-fish-michele-roohani1

Do you remember  Samad on my previous year’s Noruz card?

One of the S’s is Sekkeh or coin; the last Shah of Iran is overthrown even in my Haft Seen…

coins sekkeh nowruz michele roohani

It was raining in Paris on the first day of spring:

paris roofs michele harper

but I didn’t care because a bunch of hyacinths can bring the spring to your room.

hyacinths michele harper

Happy Noruz and,

Norouz paris venus michele roohani harper

happy 1392 to all of my Persian friends!

michele dordaneh roohani1392 persian new year

Some links to my previous Nowruz posts worth your time (I promise):

Nowruz 1390 here

Nowruz 1389 here

Nowruz 1388 here

My most visited blog post (and most used images without my permission) Haft seen here

Just decided to add this photo of myself (3 months old) on my mom’s lap having my first Noruz and not terribly impressed…

dordaneh first haft seen michele roohani

Sex, Sex, Sex…

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.

man, woman, lust, sexy, desire, tattoo, trenchcoa,t love

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.

man, woman, sexy, desire, love, tatoo, lust, intimate

“I can resist everything except temptation.” Oscar Wilde

man, woman, sexy, desire, voyeur, love, lust, intimate, tattoo

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…

Mamal Isfahani

Mamal ,Isfahani, modernist, sculptor, iranian, artist ,painter, wood, artI met this artist last week and can’t wait to go to his show this coming Saturday, October 13th, at 5921 Whitworth Drive #101; Los Angels, CA 90019; from 7:00pm to 10:00 pm.

Mamal is a modernist sculptor, working in metal, concrete, and wood (gorgeous wood i have to add) but I found him very excited about his new venture into the realm of painting where whirling dervishes mix with naked women…

mamal, isfahani, sculptor, painter, artist, modernist, wood, iraninan, california

I particularly loved his wood work which is one of my favorite media. It was interesting to see this veteran of Iran/Iraq war (sculpted his first piece with his army knife from a piece of wood he’d found in a battlefield and dressed it in a metal jacket and a helmet to protect it from missiles), playing with his cute dog, Gorgui. He described how he’d fallen into a place between hell and heaven and closed his eyes to the red and bloody scene around him in one of the bloodiest nights of the war. The red is omnipresent in his work.

Mamal ,Isfahani, modernist, sculptor, iranian, artist ,painter, wood, art, ballista

mamal_isfahani@yahoo.com (310)500-8993

Claude Verlinde, the illusionist

I got to know the work of this great artist in 1998 in paris at the Michelle Boulet gallery. I just found out that Verlinde has been very active in the past few years. I loved this piece of one of his paintings which reminded me of Jean Ferrat‘s song, l’Amour est cerise.

verlinde, amour, cerise, love, painting, cherries, woman