Ufaq Ehsan: A Soul Healer

For Ufaq Ehsan, emotional travails are deeply felt and passionately recorded. She approaches the task of image making but never panders to the notion of illustrating her personal feelings. Her lines, textures and colors collaborate, spreading themselves across the surface-immediate and self-contained. She sifts both calligraphy and organic forms, bringing them together in urgent dynamic collusion.Ufaq_Ehsan_A_Soul_Healer_Snowflakes_

Ufaq told IRIS ART MAGAZINE that she considers herself first and foremost a healer, a spiritual being and a teacher. Motherhood, meditation, literature, music, colours and counselling have played a vital role in my development as an artist and art therapist. “My belief is that when you light a candle, the darkness disappears. For me, these candles are my students and the people I heal, trying to integrate the wisdom and understanding of the self within them and eventually find their hidden potential.”

She has a very clear sense of her own existence: “Being a visual artist is a privilege one can see, receive, experience and express one’s self in a completely unique manner. My best friends and the love of my life are my paintings. In my work, I am very conscious of the fact that I am a Pakistani female artist. We women in Pakistan tend to decorate our surroundings from a shirt to a plate, we tend to decorate and celebrate the colours of our environment. For the past eighteen years I have been working as a professional artist. I am also an artist social worker working especially on rehabilitation of special people through art therapy. I have experimented with various mediums and surfaces and the effect of colour on human psyche.Red-the-rebirth1-22x30-inches-Mixed-media-on-paper

I have a vast experience both as an art therapist and also management of different cultural festivals held in Lahore.

She describes her art philosophy thus: “I like to collect smiles and heal. When someone comes to me with a heavy heart and teary eyes, trying to make them think positive and eventually seeing an expression of peace and a relieved smile is the most rewarding experience and the same is the case with my paintings, especially through the colours and imagery, I try to heal all those who gaze upon my work.”

Believe it or not, the Holy Book (the Quran) is her chief source of inspiration. She says, “My chief source of inspiration is the Quran, literature that has remained relevant throughout time. Being an Asian Muslim, I developed a deep interest in this beautifully poetic and spiritual literature. The areas that intrigued were where the Quran talks about the big bang theory, the stages of a child’s formation within the female womb, the laws of physics explaining the movement of the planets. An in-depth analysis of the human nature and psychology present in the Quran helps me to unravel the different aspects of life.

Rumi’s poetry, also, gave me an in-depth understanding of the metaphysical and the spiritual aspect of the Quran and thus enhanced my vision and perspective. I have a Bachelors in Fine Arts from the National College of Arts (NCA), Pakistan. There I majored in Painting and took Print Making as a minor.”
Ufaq has worked extensively with children and volunteer student teams for many cultural festivals held in Lahore. She has been conducting art workshops for children.

She says, “I have been blessed by the most caring and loving parents. Being the first born in the family, I was pampered a lot. My fondest childhood memories are my visits to my grandmother’s house called the Haveli or the Lashari House in the midst of old Lahore, Muzang. I would dig out clay the garden and toys out of it. There was also a big shrub of fragrant Arabian Jasmine (Motiya) and I would pluck its flowers and make garlands. My maternal uncles, Kamran Lashari and Zoraiz Lashari, would buy them from me and call me their ‘little flower girl’.

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