Sacred Waters: Works By Haleh Mashian

“Water preserves and water destroys,” Mashian observes. “I tapped into the energy of water—constantly creating, destroying and also preserving. I felt the ebb and flow in my approach to doing these series, with a very fierce calm energy. Water is never stuck. When the weather is  cold, water changes to ice, with heat comes it becomes vapor. When something is in its path, water goes around it or waits patiently till it gathers enough force to conquer its obstacle.”

Using various materials evocative of the natural world, Mashian’s waterscapes reveal the very physicality and opposing forces in water: its torrents and stillness, its ebbs and flows, its shimmer and depth, it’s roughness and ripples. In each of these works, Mashian portrays water as a cleansing, immersive substance that both washes away our detritus and calms our senses with its rejuvenating and constant momentum. In this way, water is both substance and solution—that which carries and cleanses the body and soul.

All the hues of oceans and seas can be found within Mashian's works. Obsidian-to-cerulean blues juxtaposed with violets, verdant shades of celadon, jade and lime flow into plums, magentas, ochre, with flecks of sun yellow and glacial white. Mashian’s palette suggests the feel of gazing at an expanse of ocean, taking in the meditative motion of its waves. In this way, Mashian calls forth the sacred in our natural surroundings, our visceral sense of knowing what calms, rejuvenates and steadies us so that we can stay on course.

“We can have the courage to rise, the willingness to surrender to what comes our way.” Mashian reassures. “It’s the practice of no resistance, embracing the flux. It’s the comfort of knowing we can be like water and emulate its fluid characteristics.” Mashian connects the adaptability of water as the key to how to maintain our composure and equilibrium given the long pandemic and the state of the world. Water is the way.

Mashian’s works consistently contain homages to that which is natural—wooded forests, intense flora, or the mutable forces within the feminine. SACRED WATERS is the organic outgrowth to Mashian’s idea that the natures of women and the rhythms of the natural world pulse in tandem—mutable and fluid, ever-changing and constant. “Water knows intuitively when to take a stance and when to let go—a feminine quality,” Mashian adds. “SACRED WATERS is the visual representation of my flotation journey to a state of creative release.”