Sanam Feroz’s art transcends all barriers

Art, it is said, transcends all borders created by humans. And should that statement ever need to be backed-up by proof, one need not look any further than the 32-year-old Sanam Feroz.

Sanam comes from a conservative Muslim background but that has not stopped her from picking up a rather unusual hobby - mural painting depicting Hindu deities.

Sanam took her art public for the first time at a Shopping Fest organised by OISCA that started at the Police Club near here on Monday.  She was first exposed to mural painting during a camp at Organisation for Industrial Spiritual and Cultural Advancement (OISCA) two years ago and she has not put down her paint brush ever since.

“I never had any formal training in painting though I did take up an active interest in it when I was studying in college. Then I attended the course at OISCA a couple of years ago and got introduced to the world of mural art,” she says. It was the colour and complication of the style that first drove her to learn how to draw murals, she says.

 “Murals are not that easy to draw. When I first saw them, I could not figure out where they began and where they ended. It was my desire to learn how it was made that led me to be a student of the style,” she says.  Despite the subjects that she was depicting, her family never discouraged her once from pursuing her passions, she says.

“They have given me their full support and have encouraged me all the time. I am now teaching my children to draw in that style,” she says. And all that seem to be paying off as her work has not taken long to get noticed. “I have already sold two murals painted on Bamboo on the first day. It is nice to finally get feedback from the public regarding my work,” she says.

However, her greatest regret remains the fact that she is unable to see the original forms of her work which drapes various temple walls across the state.

“I do not want to hurt anybody’s feelings so I have never tried to get inside the temples. I do hope that one day I will able to see a mural painting in its original form,” she says.