Female Street Artist combines strange creatures and geometrical patterns
Nisaa FM: - Jordan’s female street artist Yara Hindawi works in a dreamlike and neutral way, which stands out from the crowd. Her playful canvas, scattered here and there across the country, features bizarre cartoon-like creatures with pop colors and futuristic shapes juxtaposed to flowers, clouds and other real-life natural elements.
Her work is based in the belief that ghosts are an integral part of the human spirit, and we should learn how to harmoniously live with them in order to master our most secret and deepest fears.
From doodling to drawing art work
Yara Hindawi remembers that she has always been doodling and drawing. She never took formal art or drawing classes, but taught herself different styles through books and inspiration found online. Her unique style was developed 4 – 5 years ago; combining strange creatures, geometrical patterns, and playing with ink line weights. She says about ghosts in the art that they are a childhood fear of the unknown. “They are the monsters in our closet; ghosts are the visual representation of this hyperactive childish imagination, currently living and residing in the reality of an adult. It’s like bringing a little playfulness back into gloomy and melancholic situations.”
Hindawi grew up in Dubai, but made Amman her new home, which has forced her to explore and grow. “I was invited to participate in a 'Reclaim Your Streets’-event and I was encouraged to embrace my ghost characters by Tunisian graffiti artist MeenOne. He inspired me to get out of my comfort zone and draw more often from my imagination and without too much planning.”
About a year ago she did some wall murals and took part in a street art event in Cairo called 'Women on Walls’. And when moving to Amman, she connected with some local street artists through a gallery called Fada317 and started painting walls. Currently, she paints nearly every weekend with some of the most prominent Middle Eastern street and graffiti artists.
Inspired by cartoons from her childhood
Yara Hindawi is inspired by the artists she interacts with and follows. Outside of the art scene, Hindawi is inspired by cartoons. She remembers adoring Ren & Stimpy, Dexter’s Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, Ed Edd and Eddy, and other great Cartoon Network shows. Later when she was in her 20s, she fell in love with Adventure Time and Hayao Miyazaki’s legendary work.
Furthermore Hindawi is a big fan of sound system culture, and the movement in the music and the energetic dancing. She is currently working on a way to bring that movement into her paintings.
Hindawi has taken part in 'The Word is Yours’, the first-ever urban festival that gathered together artists from the MENA region to celebrate the subversive culture of hip-hop, skateboarding, break-dancing and street art. She got to expose her work at the event. There she had the opportunity to work in a neighborhood full of children who would come out and help her paint, “They were fun to be around, and it was nice to see what they thought of this art which would be a part of their community.”
Source: www.theculturetrip.com