Tavan Studio in Conversation

Lena Kassicieh is a Palestinian-American multi disciplinary artist and maker. She talks about growing up in a family of doctors and medical professionals, beauty school dreams, and letting her innate curiosity and attraction to whimsical and ironic everyday life observations pour into her creative process . We follow Lena’s journey from New Mexico to Amman and then to Dubai and learn about her experiences in the art world which empowered her to realize, accept, and validate herself as an artist. It was such a pleaser to speak with Lena about her art process, thought process, and creative living. 

Tamara Barrage is a Lebanese Artist and Designer recently based in Dubai. She earned a masters degree in product design in Lebanon then later got her second masters degree specializing in contextual design from the Netherlands.  Her work explores tactile and sensorial characteristics of various materials. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Tamara about her obsession with texture and her crazy studio experiences. We talked a lot about corn and chainsaws and had a good laugh. You will understand once you get deep into the conversation. Her work is intriguing, makes you curious, and maybe even repulsed ( her words not mine!) and creates a dialogue and connection that she enjoys experiencing and observing from others. Thank you for sharing your story Tamara 🖤

With childhood anecdotes and stories about how art brought her closer to her children, Emirati Artist Maitha Hamdan, immerses us in her creative and artistic life. Maitha talks about being a multi disciplinary artist and business woman, how she came back to art after leaving it during a rough patch in her life, and offers some insight on mom guilt and self care. 

In this episode, Franco Egyptian artist Hoda Tawakol talks about the inspiration behind her distinguishable voluminous fabric sculptures, her collaborative work with the Persian trio Hesam Rahmanian and Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh in the midst of a pandemic, and the final push that got her to listen to her truth and transition into a career as a fulltime artist. Hoda talks about the importance of the materials she uses, her creative process, and how a small project initiated by her friend Abed Alkadiri pulled her out of a major low during the early days of the pandemic. 

In this episode I get to talk to the amazing and inspiring Manal Al Dowayan. @manaldowayan takes us on a journey from her early days of black and white photography to her most recent trampoline installations in the ancient city of Al Ula @_desertx . She shares with us about the times when she would secretly take art classes and how art residencies played an important role in her career. Manal talks about visualizing the life she wanted and how she finds inspiration and strength by surrounding and immersing herself in a female community both in her professional and personal life.

Kicking off season 2 with multi media artist Alia Ali. Alia dives deep into her practice, expanding on how her work is driven by her multicultural Yemeni-Bosnian roots within a geopolitical context. We learn about her love and deep connection with textile, the reason behind her “faceless” images, and the power of repeated texts.  Alia gives us a look into her day to day studio practice and the things she draws inspiration from which contribute to her creative living. 

Wrapping up season 1 of Tavan Studio in Conversation with an in-depth chat about frescos, surfaces, decay, and time with artist and muralist Chafa Ghaddar. Chafa walks us through her journey of observing the natural and also distressed landscapes of Lebanon and the transition to the heat and crystal blue pool surfaces of Dubai and how that has impacted her fresco thought process and work. Chafa also opens up about her experience as a new mother and gives us a very honest and raw depiction of her time spent during the lockdown.