She Sat With Yesterday

by Roya Farassat

“Growing up in Iran and living in New York, I have navigated complex social, gender, and cultural expectations shaped by displacement and identity. Experiencing patriarchy firsthand, I began exploring the objectification of women in my paintings while also delving into their inner worlds, sometimes through humor, other times through deep sorrow. I create imagined, satirical portraits that capture solitary moments, revealing, tenderness, defiance, strength and layered emotional relationships. My work is both psychological and playful, blurring the line between reality and imagination. Through these portraits, I seek to reclaim female narratives, challenge societal norms, and explore the resilience and complexity of the feminine experience. Humor often appears in my work as a coping mechanism, an attempt to soften heavy subjects, much like a bright bandage covering unseen scars. Some paintings take on grotesque qualities, reflecting my struggle to reconcile acts of inhumanity and violence. Beneath all these layers runs an undercurrent of loss: loss of life, loss of time, and loss of youth.”