ARTWORKS
![The Garden of Desires 1](https://iterarte.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/7f9b052d-d625-4e50-b648-fef0ed096509-l.jpg)
Marwan Sahmarani
NIDHI KHURANA
In this episode during a visit to his Beirut studio, Marwan Sahmarani discusses with Founder Tamara Chalabi his artistic practice; what and who inspires him; […]
Panos Tsagaris.
Exhausted, fulfilled, stressed, blessed.
French fries or ice cream.
Only and always green unsweetened iced tea.
These days, any place I travel with my wife and kids.
Any movies of Andrei Tarkovsky.
Too many to list here; the series of Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks (edited by Joseph Campbell) is truly a goldmine.
The first that comes to my mind is a little question from the first degree (Entered Apprentice) initiation in FreeMasonry:
“Why did you leave the West and travel East?”
“In search of Light.”
His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, Joseph Campbell (foundation).
I live in NY so there are more like three thousand things that inspire me here on a daily basis. Funny enough the things that I find inspiring in NY are often the same ones that bring me down or stress me out!
Some conflicts we have in our heads don’t always have to be resolved, and that’s ok.
For me, going back to what feels familiar, helps; repetition often leads to new and exciting outcomes.
I believe it’s the colour black.
An inspiring book.
It varies. I am currently in the middle of a couple of deadlines so 70% messy – 30% tidy.
I think it was a call/fate.
Self motivation can be equally challenging and exciting.
Art making is a wild process, the attempt to translate a thought, a feeling or an intuition, into something material/visual is indeed a crazy experiment.
In only three words, that’s a bit limiting. Ok let me try it, in no particular order: harmonious, balanced, liberating.
I think it would be really fun and inspiring to work on a project together with Aleister Crowley.
Inside my two daughters’ magical minds.
In terms of my studio playlist, I don’t listen to music very often when I work in the studio. I mostly listen to podcasts, audio books or lectures/talks. I quite often visit the youtube channel of the Theosophical society which is full of informative lectures. The Joseph Campbell foundation Youtube channel is also full of some very inspiring talks. The Carl Jung Institute channel is another one I often go to.
Now when I feel nostalgic, I often listen to bands that helped me go through my teenage years. Growing up in Greece in the early 90s I felt somewhat isolated and trapped in an environment and a country that at the time felt and was very close minded and regional.The bands that were coming out from the big music centres of the time, such as NY, Seattle, LA, London provided me with the escape that I needed during those frustrated teenage years. My rejection of local & traditional Greek music at that age was an expression of rebellion against the overall conservative and suppressive mentality of my home country; which in my case climaxed when I turned 18, and decided to skip the mandatory military service and to escape Greece for good.