Biography

Sara was born on the 24th day of November 1983 in Tehran in post-revolution Iran, in the midst of Iran-Iraq war. These were challenging times for people working in the cultural sphere. Her father, a journalist, was no less affected by the restrictive environment. Sara, like many others of that generation, grew up in a society more and more dominated by radical Islamists, which inflicted upon the intellectual institutions a harsh purge termed “cultural revolution” which resulted in their total paralysis.

She went to public school for just over eleven years in total. When entering high school she picked maths over science and humanities. After three years and when she was to enlist for pre-university year she had the opportunity to apply for Art school. This was however to be left incomplete when her parents offered to support her financially so that she can study abroad. After some research and positive feedback from her brother who took this opportunity only a few months earlier, she decided to register at Cyprus College in Nicosia, Cyprus.

The language of teaching in Cyprus College was English, however Sara's knowledge of English was rather limited at this time. She therefore had to take only preparatory English courses for an entire semester. Upon completing this preparatory course she had to decide on a major. This college did not offer Art courses. She reluctantly but temporarily chose Computer Science.

At this time she was to meet her future husband, Hossein, who had also left Iran to study abroad. It had not been the end of her first semester when Hossein managed to arrange his transfer to London Metropolitan University. They decided to go to Iran that summer, get married and leave for London.

Upon arriving in London Sara started to look for Art courses at different universities. She applied at a university for an Art degree an interview was arranged during the interview she realized that without a substantiation portfolio it is not possible to receive admission for an Art degree at the university. However she barely had any piece of work worthy of demonstration as she never attended Art school prior to that and the little time she spent at the Iranian pre-university was not enough to produce any major work.

She started looking around for ways to build up a portfolio. This is when she came across pre-foundation courses at Central Saint Martins, London. She registered for a number of these courses and built up a portfolio that got her admission for BTEC Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at London Metropolitan University.

Sara successfully completed her foundation degree and applied at the same university and received admission for B.A Fine Art. She completed this degree in the normal three years. At their final year exhibition organized by London Metropolitan University, an online Art gallery contacted her and expressed interest in exhibiting a selection of Sara's works on their website (www.newbloodart.com) and at their expo in a venue in south west London.

Since graduation she has continued the work that formed her final year project. Sara keeps the online gallery informed of her new work, attends their exhibitions and is looking for more galleries where she could exhibit her work, in addition to launching her own website to promote her work.