Interview with Nasrah Nefer

Statement: 

"Following the language of my soul is a great adventure. Deciphering this language gives a conscious insight into the depth of one's own existence and initiates a dialog between soul and mind." 

How did growing up in Heidelberg with German-Egyptian heritage influence your early interest in the arts, and what led you to pursue nursing alongside your artistic endeavours?

Heidelberg is one of the most romantic small towns in Germany. As a child, I was mostly alone in the streets of Heidelberg, without playmates or school friends. My origins weren’t the reason for my loneliness, and I didn’t even know it for many years. I grew up with my mother and a German stepfather. Unfortunately my childhood was anything but loving, but rather traumatic, which is why I expressed my feelings in pictures very early on. 

Heidelberg’s old villas with turrets, stucco facades, bay windows and magnificent wooden gates, romantic rose gardens, in the middle of lush green forests on the Neckar that meandered through a hilly landscape awakened in me a deep longing for a different life. The images in my head were bright and clear, borne of

my longing for that different life. Back then, I discovered my love for antique furniture and the Art Noveau and Art Deco styles. When I painted, I could be what I longed for and created a bright parallel world to the gloomy reality in which I was barely able to survive. This is probably also the reason why the desire to heal was deeply anchored in me. 

By training to become a nurse, I took the opportunity to start an independent life at the age of 16, far away from my family, but I was always just a hair’s breadth away from art. After my service I visited a patient with whom I painted, and she asked if she could keep my pictures. She had shown them to a friend who had a private art school and this friend offered me a scholarship.

You have an impressively diverse skill set, including being a certified nurse, Reiki expert, dancer, life coach, and massage therapist. How do these roles interplay with and influence your work as an artist?

I was driven by a mind that thirsted for knowledge and I was looking for an area that could fulfil me completely. Everything I learned gave me multi-layered perspectives on things, the world around me and the people I met through it. I found that I had a deep insight into life stories and destinies, parallel and different emotional spaces that created intense images in me. Back then I still needed a lot of quick movements for my mind to get out of the cocoon I felt I was living in.  I think that my awakening to art was almost a logical consequence for me  because my mind works entirely visually. I think in pictures, everything told comes to life in my head, takes on colours, smells and emotion -  a word already becomes a living element inside me, which then wants to emerge as an image. Every encounter with a person or a new action became an inspiration.

Your artwork is known for its abstract style, pittura metafisica, and maximalism. Can you describe what draws you to these particular styles and how you blend them to create your unique artistic Expression?

All three of these styles have something very important in common; unlike realism or photorealism, they have no limitations. I can leave the conventional ground and paint without limits what has already formed an image inside me. Pittura Metafisica best describes the result of a soul ianguage; it’s like dreaming on canvas. 

How has the Bohemian lifestyle deeply influenced your artwork, and in what ways do you think this lifestyle is reflected in your Creations?

What is called the Bohemian lifestyle in western countries is for me like a mirror of the two cultures that I combine within myself, in perhaps the same way that Art Noveau and Art Deco is the synthesis of European and Oriental design and has produced such a beautiful, delicate, elegant and unique style. The oriental colours and patterns in clothing, jewellery, wooden furniture with carvings and inlays have always fascinated me; I have always lived and loved the colourful world full of warmth as a dancer and painter - it cannot be separated from me because it is located within me.

Could you share more about your experiences studying art in Italy and Germany, and how these experiences have shaped your artistic Vision?

Those were exciting times that created adventures outside and within myself. In Sardinia I was able to develop my art freely through observation and reflection. At first I felt lost because there were no

instructions, just my place with an easel and paints. But living in our maestro’s house with about twelve other students was like being permanently part of the artistic process. We learned from each other, exchanged ideas, discussed, reflected and experienced free expression. 

In Germany, however, this wild artistic expression was forced into a few corsets.  Even though it was initially difficult to fit into a narrow space, I acquired more basic knowledge, techniques and tool knowledge and was able to express myself in other media, which I lived out for a while in silk paintings and sculptures. Both of these  experiences of observation and reflection were inspiring and they influenced, and perhaps promoted my development.

You have successfully opened a lifestyle shop and event restaurants where art plays a central role. How do you merge your entrepreneurial spirit with your artistic vision in these ventures?

My intention was to bring people closer to oriental culture in form. When people think of Orient, they would often think of Islam, veiled women, the Arabian desert and Gulf states as parts of their perception of the Orient. However, I wanted to focus on the sensual pleasures; the music, so full of emotion, the food in an indescribable variety and sophistication, the scents, patterns and colours and, of course, the dances. My vision was to connect cultures through experiences that I had personally felt. We held at least one concert, play, fairy tale evening, exhibition and dance performance every week. It was a very lively and wonderfully creative time for me that inspired my art.

As someone who also teaches art, what do you find most rewarding about sharing your knowledge and skills with others?

I have always enjoyed teaching and have always tried to attune myself to a person’s personality and to feel how that person learns most easily. Learning should be fun and feeling the growth of your own personality should be an exciting and positive experience for these people. My greatest happiness is when I manage to get the best out of them and develop them.

You have received several international awards for your art, including the 4th Leonardo da Vinci Prize. How does international recognition impact your journey as an artist?

It is, of course, very exciting to be given an award - it gave me great motivation to continue and develop my art, and as a consequence provided me with a better public presence on the internet, and curators continue to invite me to wonderful exhibitions abroad.

As the founder of the N A S Art Group, what are your goals in uniting Orient and Occident cultures through art, and how do you see this impacting the art world?

First I would like to tell you the background behind the creation of N AS Art.  Since the beginning of my art training, I have found the exchange with other artists or people who analysed my paintings to be a driving force; it is a strong inspiration.

This is how is what inspired me, more than thirty years ago, to combine different disciplines and more recently to bring together different art styles on one canvas. I had tried it a few times before with a partner and the results were always wonderful. 

I founded the artist group Nas Art with two Turkish painters, each of us having such different personalities, different lifestyles, art styles and different cultural backgrounds. We painted together on a large canvas where our talents met, and we were able to criticise each other and  harmonise or merge our expressions on canvas. It was like a painted socio-cultural challenge and we worked together every weekend for almost two years and produced three series of paintings that we are currently exhibiting.

Looking forward, what are your aspirations as an artist, especially in terms of using your paintings to express emotions and transform the ordinary into the extraordinary?

Thank you for these beautiful words. However, it actually describes me; I always find it difficult to tolerate things or conditions that are ugly or even just meaningless - I feel a deep need to transform and evolve things into something beautiful and meaningful. My wishes relate to the realisation of current projects. 

As I mentioned at the beginning, my childhood was traumatising and it certainly initiated art in me; it’s as if the healing was given to me along the way. Art is healing and, especially in my story, a relatable outlet that helped me survive. Prof. Erdal Beşer therefore wrote a book about my life to highlight the power of healing through art and thus gave other people hope and it showed them a way to seek their own power to heal. The book Ruhun Ayrıksı Tangos (Tango of a Special Soul) contains my pictures, which are reflections of those particular stages in life. The plan is to have exhibitions with readings and also to turn the book into a theatre play and possibly a film. 

I would be very happy if  these projects come to fruition, because they would be an immense mouthpiece for the message within my soul.;