We recently connected with Merita Jaha and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Merita thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I had an awful experience with my art teacher at a very young age. I always loved art, but my Art teacher in middle school would tear our artwork into pieces if she didn’t like it. So she tore mine one day, and after that, I didn’t paint or draw for a very long time. In 1999 my family and I were forced to flee to Sarajevo, Bosnia because of the war. At this time I was attending 2 schools. I went to a Bosnian school on weekdays and to an Albanian school on weekends. The Art teacher at the Albanian school encouraged us to raise our voices through our Artistic expression. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had a voice. That I had power. I would create artwork that illustrated the war scenes in Kosovo, or white doves as a symbol of peace. I talk more about this experience in my TEDx talk as well. I highly recommend listening to it, if you’re interested in learning more about How to boost your happiness through art. That was the time I decided that this was my purpose. To express myself, raise my voice, and awareness of things that I really cared about. I could not stop creating Art ever since.
Merita, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
2005 I was painting at my Art studio at the University of Prishtina. It was after midnight, so I had to go home. I still had paint on my palette and I didn’t want to waste it. So I thought I’d splash some paint on the new smaller canvas, thinking this would be a great base to start painting on the next day. I signed it and then left. In my class, people would just paint over canvases that were not signed. When I came back the next morning, I couldn’t find my painting anywhere. My professor arrived a few minutes later and didn’t even greet me after I said “Good morning”. Then he looked at me and asked: Are you looking for your painting? He added: This morning some art curators from Brussels and Paris came to visit our university. So I showed them around and they really liked your paintings. Your painting is traveling to Brussels, you are going to be our art ambassador in Brussels. A month later that painting won the Golden Medal. This was only the beginning of my successes. I won many more awards and civic honors after that. It is worth mentioning that one of the first award-winning paintings belongs to the Art Museum in Cosenza, Italy.
I always try to offer the best service possible to my clients through my artistic expression. I offer original Artwork, prints, merchandise, and commissioned artwork. I organize an annual fundraiser and art auction for a different charitable organization each year.
I believe that Art can change society and I try to do my part.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
NFTs have a huge impact on carbon print. NFTs consume energy throughout their lifecycle. The creating and storage methods used to house NFTs on blockchain technology are responsible for emitting millions of tons of carbon dioxide. which is bad for our planet. An average NFT will produce 211kg of CO2 into the atmosphere. Therefore it will take about 4 trees to offset the life of an NFT. In my opinion, even if we planted 3-4 trees per 1 NFT, still would not be worth it. Why course a harm in the first place?
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think we can learn a lot from history. The history almost always repeats itself. During the Renaissance, the Medici the family of bankers sponsored artists. We see a great rebirth of the entire society. Society must sponsor and purchase artwork from the Artist. Artists are the most intuned and sensitive beings. If society sponsors the Artists and purchases their artwork, we will see a great improvement not only in the creative ecosystem but in every aspect of a healthy and happy society.
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