ABOUT
I was born in Switzerland into a family of thirteen brothers and sisters. We grew up in Beirut and Iran. It was a rich and adventurous childhood, full of people, stories and experiences, but the Lebanese civil war in 1975 brought that chapter of our lives to a violent end. We became dispersed.That experience left a lasting mark on the way I see the world — accepting the unknown and the unexpected, knowing that life can bring joy, love and discovery, but also hardship and loss.Drawing and painting have been ways of telling that journey, with reflection, humour, sensuality and curiosity. Over the years I have moved between painting, cartooning, illustration and filmmaking. The languages are different, but the subjects remain close: love, dreams, human relationships and the strange world we inhabit.
PAINTING
Over the last ten years, painting has gradually become the central focus of my artistic work.I work mainly with oil on wood, building the image in layers before cutting into it. I use knives, chisels and tools that I make or adapt myself, carving through the painted surface and exposing the wood beneath.The act of carving has become an essential part of the work. I create an image and then intervene in it — cutting, removing and revealing. The wood begins to speak through the painting. Lines carved into the surface can become drawings; wounds can become openings; what first appears to be destruction can become another form of creation.I am drawn to the space between opposites: beauty and violence, tenderness and absurdity, humour and seriousness, intimacy and distance. My paintings move between personal experience and the wider stories that surround us — mythology, literature, politics, memory and everyday life.I don't seek to give the viewer one fixed story. I prefer the paintings to remain open, allowing different meanings and emotions to emerge.At the centre of it all is a fascination with people — our desires, our fears, our follies, our relationships and our capacity for love.
THE BLA BLA SERIES
The Bla Bla Series is a kind of personal illustrated diary. It moves between the personal, relational, political and existential, looking for the irony, silliness, absurdity and hypocrisy in the world around me.And beneath all the noise there is always the essential thing: Love, in all its forms.
THE HIGH LIFE
The High Life looks at privilege and inequality through the absurd world of the Blue Giraffes.Throughout history there have always been those who live above the others. The giraffes rule from their elevated position while those beneath them struggle to survive.It is a playful world, but the subject is serious: power, hierarchy and the unequal distribution of what life has to offer.
OTHER WORK
Alongside painting, I have worked as a cartoonist, illustrator and filmmaker.My illustration work includes large-scale paintings created for the Lillehammer Olympic Winter Games ceremonies and many years of storyboarding for Nordic feature films.I have brought these different parts of my creative life together on this website, allowing the visitor to move between the different universes.My film work can be found at:www.parramorefilms.com
