We were lucky to catch up with Salma Arastu recently and have shared our conversation below.

Salma, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Soil and Soul is going to be my new series of paintings that will juxtapose mycelial patterns with Arabic calligraphy as a way to examine and express the deep interconnectedness of human and natural life. The new series would mirror contemporary ecological and social issues with artistic investigations based on science, spirituality and the humanities. As forest ecology has developed, we increasingly see that it is the fungi that coordinate forests and ecosystems, acting as connective tissue between all beings. Like an underground highway system, mycelium carries nutrients—nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus—between plant roots, nurturing the collective growth of its community. Its contributions don’t stop there: plants with fungal allies are proven to be more resilient when it comes to infestation and disease, and mycelium has even been shown to transmit messages between plants through a language of chemical signals. The invisible network of mushroom mycelium found in nature is a dynamic rooted network that works to build and sustain vast, reciprocal, interconnections. On a human level, these connections speak to us of the nourishment and growth possible in our organizations, communities and social movements.
This project combines the examination of mycelial knowledge with my lifelong study of spirituality. For example, the behavior of mycelia brings to mind certain verses from the Quran that make charity obligatory upon all individuals to help the less fortunate and destitute in society. In this series, artistic investigations may bring together the Arabic script –which itself loops and connects one letter to another in a continuous line– with the architectural, systemic connectivity of fungi or root.
Soil and Soul thus creates a visual discourse that bridges science, spirituality, natural diversity, diaspora, and language. It asks the viewer to consider the common good, sustainability, and collective healing. By drawing from science as well as spirituality, it engages the viewer on multiple levels of emotion, mystery, rationality, curiosity and devotion. It also directly engages with some of the pressing questions of our time in terms of the plight of humanity and this planet. Will we be able to access the deep interconnectedness that is our natural/spiritual legacy to bring peace and harmony to this planet before it’s too late?
As an artist I respond to these questions via large calligraphy paintings that use virtuoso brushwork to produce large, free-flowing calligraphic abstractions. The moving lyrical lines –a hallmark of my oeuvre– often start with inspiration and instinct, and gradually begin forming relationships to each other and with Arabic calligraphy, Islamic patterns, and natural formative structures such as the hyphae (the network of tubular filaments of the fungi). In my work, the Hidden and the Mysterious – what’s underground, and what’s in the Spirit– dance together in visible, dynamic movements of color, texture, tactile material and more. Together these hidden structures seek to be visible and known to the human viewer of my paintings. They call for human individual participation in this most elemental of systems, in order for us to realize our true nature and overcome our biggest challenges.
“If we are in rhythm with nature, we are in rhythm with ourselves.” —Micah Hobbes Frazier
Verses about ecological consciousness and the interconnectedness of all species keep holding my attention, and I feel as though I am experiencing a Divine invitation to delve deeper into these subjects.
I have been immersing myself in looking at remedies to save our planet and its ecosystems, and I have found my ‘muse’ in the underground network of mycelia that is regenerating, activating, and healing the damaged state of our environment, and invisible tiny benefactors Microbes who are an integral and essential part of the web of life.
Thematically, the interconnectedness between diverse human cultures and religions has been a cornerstone of my work, as is the desire to bring humanity together through art. This new work builds on my previous project, “Our Earth: Embracing All Communities.” But it charts new territory in the realm of these life-giving networks under our feet. I am getting closer to nature and discovering ancient, ongoing stories of connection and resilience through mycorrhizal pathways. As white filaments are able to graft or connect diverse elements, they inspire me to rethink our relationship and connection to the natural world.
Sophie Strand writes, “Fungi are the original angels. Root messengers. Weavers. Communicators. They sew soil to plants, trees to trees. They hold ecosystems together like conversations.” For this particular project, I am drawing from readings on the principles and poetry of Mycelial flow in books such as Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life, Suzzane Simard’s Finding the Mother Tree, and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass. These books have offered me invisible vistas of nature and stories of the mysterious ongoing wonders right under our feet. These authors have reconfirmed the principles of interdependence between nature and all species. These works, along with my own spiritual practice and diasporic journeys, together renew my inspiration to bring unlimited hope and possibility into our lives.
Mycelium in nature and in movements believe in the collective ability to channel and receive nutrients where needed, protect against those who harm social progress, and expand roots into necessary sites of growth. The network process also fosters intergenerational relationships that connect the ancient wisdom residing in older trees towards the benefit of younger trees. These mushrooms affirm a commitment to building relationships of trust that encourage all life to bloom. Mycelium is a fully open-ended and indeterminate dynamic structure that can continually respond to changing demands of our social movements. The word mycelium meaning “more than one” serves as a metaphor that no justice work is done alone. There are no solo acts and everything and everyone is interconnected into the web of the whole. Each organization or movement, like mushroom spores, develops individual and flexible characteristics, but always in connection with the communal body. The metaphor of mycelium in a time of social justice and reckoning asks that we center deep connection, ancestral wisdom, trust, and shared resourcing. I see this particular body of work as important in terms of contributing to the aesthetic foundations of movement work. As an artist and member of society, I aspire to embody more and more of these principles in my own practice and ask my audience to do the same.
“Mycelium is about building community, networking, nourishing the world around you.” Andy Bass
Mushrooms are powerful teachers when it comes to community.
Mycelium mushrooms have been one of my greatest teachers in regard to social justice related issues. The word mycelium means ‘more than one.’ The mycelium organism is a dynamic root system of mushrooms that utilizes trust as a mechanism to build and sustain a vast, reciprocal, underground network that connects the roots of trees and plants and skillfully shares nutrients and resources to support the health of the entire ecosystem with which it moves. If only such trust and principles were baked into our own social structure, it would bring justice around the globe!
In closely examining natural structures in and through my art, I draw from and hopes to inspire movements that range from climate change, green energy, ecological consciousness and restoration, social/economic justice, indigenous, earth-first movements, and more.
Additionally– within my own interfaith and Muslim communities– some of my work connects the spirit of Islamic values to the pressing issues of our time. Mushrooms encourage us to consider the shortcomings of our own society, particularly the greed and wastefulness rampant in modern consumer culture. I have located spiritual verses in the Quran, for example, which directly prohibit humans from engaging in corruption and wastefulness. So some of my paintings disrupt the commonly held Judeo-Christian-Muslim monotheistic prioritization of humans above all else, as I ask to consider how these mycelial networks are teachers and ‘signs for those who believe.’
The energy, movement, and purpose of these spreading fungi networks suit my moving lyrical lines. The ‘lyrical line’ –which has been a staple of my art practice for many years– has found a new area of expression, and, in this project, converges with the lines that represent Nature’s mycelial and microbial flow. My work sample images show some initial studies of this flow. As I develop the paintings I imagine for this series, they will include my lyrical lines of calligraphy and human figures.
For this project I am discovering and playing with new methods and materials. For example –in an effort to avoid plastics-based materials such as acrylic– I am creating my own rust by soaking steel wool in vinegar for a few days then treating it to paper for a ‘natural’ orange hue. And I’m using Hanji, a Korean 3-ply paper (30×60). This is a new material and sizing for my work. Later, I will employ charcoal, jute twine, pastels and glaze seals. I am also going to explore digital media by printing my manipulated images on my large Korean handmade paper and paint with layers of rust. Recently as my work involves around fungi, mushrooms and mycelium I take pictures of the roots on the ground and apply several layers and make the entanglement dense and deep as I imagine mycelium based on the poetic language of the books by the different authors and scientists.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Art was always in my life; I remember drawing and painting very abstract, fishlike figures since childhood. Right from the beginning, I was searching for total connection. Looking back, I realize that I found the building block of my practice – the ‘lyrical line’–and it also found me. Through it –as it takes shape, moves in the world, connects, gains energy–my path has become clearer, both on the canvas and in my life. My hand is guided by divine powers, with energy moving from the heart to hand to canvas. The line has guided me along a four decade-plus artistic path and leads me into the future. Childhood and formal art education
The youngest child in my family, I was born Kamlesh Valiram Hingorani in India to parents who walked from Sindh Province in Pakistan to Rajasthan, India.
Partition divided my family from its home and property; but the spiritual legacy I received primarily from my mother always emphasized spiritual connection and a divine force that connected all, despite the challenges and conflicts humans create for each other. My parents never spoke of Partition; I have early memories of my mother serving snacks to my father when he returned from long hours ministering to patients, always taking extra work to help care for a large family in a small space. Fatigue and anger would bring up memories of the property he once had, the room not available here.
At birth I was given the life-defining challenge of a left hand without fingers. My mom was very spiritual, and she told me I was born for a special reason and that I had to find it. By the time I was 10, I was writing and drawing in my book every day. By the time I was 10, my father had passed from a heart attack, and my older brothers assumed our family’s care.
My elder siblings held my right hand in theirs, stroking my fingers and saying I had the hand of an artist and would become an artist one day. I was doted on by a caring loving family. And I was also teased for my left hand by kids in school. I learned to use my Indian clothing and scarf to fluidly wrap the hand, so it wasn’t seen; and I continue this practice to this day, preferring to keep this reality generally to myself, and not appear limited or solicitous of pity in the eyes of others. Because I have been blessed with so much.
My formal art education consisted of bachelor’s and master’s programs in Hyderabad and Baroda. Despite some advice to adopt more realistic figures, I worked more intently with lyrical lines and entangled forms. My relationship with my future husband -a Muslim- tested my family’s affections for me, tested the philosophical spirituality inherited by my mother, and created much stress as a

young artist. I often say, ‘Life is like a thread, the more you straighten it, the more you’re entangled.’ This belief began at this juncture in my life, professionally and personally. I took solace and inspiration in the work in the modernist brilliance of M.F. Husain and Amrita Sher-Gil, the rhythmic linear figures of Paul Klee, the emotionalism of Van Gogh and the powerful lines of Jackson Pollock. Pollock said, ‘You can just go on and on and on. So, these thin lines give one great control.’
And so, I would continue with this ‘line,’ as it laid a path into a marriage with a Muslim, becoming Muslim myself, and traveling and living out of my home country.
Encountering calligraphy in the Middle East
Living in Iran, beginning in 1976, I saw this amazing continuous line on the buildings and mosques around me. I cannot overstate how much calligraphy really mesmerized me. I would spend hours copying it, getting close to it while volunteering at art museums in Tehran (and later Kuwait), first just following its flow and later researching patterns and designs. In Kuwait, I began informally studying Quranic verses and the Arabic language and began writing words and short phrases in the Arabic script. This script, written from right to left in a cursive style, [also the basis for Farsi, Urdu etc.], was a natural new destination for my ‘lyrical line’ to explore. There was something both liberating and stable in discovering calligraphy. My studies were never formal, but I learned and absorbed what I could from museums, friends, books, and other artists. The religious and spiritual verses, monuments and overall culture also fed into and widened my personal spiritual exploration. I also exhibited in galleries (Kuwait’s Boushari Gallery and British Council Gallery, and Tehran’s Azad Gallery and Hotel Intercontinental), and sold dozens of paintings to private collectors.
Economics and politics in the United States
The informal study of Arabic, calligraphy and Quranic verses would surprisingly come to aid me in a professional manner after moving to the U.S. My architect husband would experience bouts of unemployment, and with kids to raise, I was eager to use my art skills to supplement our income. (Being extremely shy made it quite difficult for me to hold conventional jobs, and I did not want to compromise my art). I studied graphic design at community college in Pennsylvania and did some freelance work. With the help of a local printer who encouraged me, I designed cards and began selling them, from my car, direct to shops and customers. I started an Islamic greeting card business which did well in the 90’s and early 20’s. By 2009 I had 135 different designs, and we had an international clientele. During this time, I was deeply engaged in producing my Myth and Mystery series, returning to some of the fishlike figures from my youth, now bubbling up in a new immigrant’s subconscious. This series was exhibited at

different galleries and venues on the east coast and sold widely in New York City.
Post 9-11
By the 2010 ecards had come onto the market, so the demand for my cards decreased. 9/11 and its accompanying Islamophobia had a big impact on me. I turned inward, asked for guidance, and felt called through my art to show the beautiful experience of Islam that I had been blessed with. I started working on large canvases, with calligraphy and abstract figures. I read Rumi and reflected on his ability to create a spiritual language that diverse people could access and relate to. I began seeking a parallel language in painting, which manifested in more public-facing work, and in my book of art and poetry called Turning Rumi: Singing Verses of Love, Unity and Freedom.
My work began expanding in new directions. I was invited to Germany twice, first as a Resident Artist in 2000 at Schwabisch Gmund, and again in the Spring of 2011, by the Westphalia Wilhelm University in Münster, Germany. I was invited to publish my paper “Art Informed by Spirituality” in the publication of the International Symposium: “God Loves Beauty: Postmodern Views on Religion and Art.” I also began presenting my work and gave talks at Stanford University, Commonwealth of San Francisco, Seattle University, Graduate Theological Union (Berkeley), Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (St. Louis) and many more.
Broader social interest in Islam and Muslim cultures led to my inclusion in shows featuring Muslim women, in New York, Washington DC, California and more. And my interest and practice of calligraphy was changing and becoming more abstract, reflective of the global art movement called ‘Hurufiyya’ or letter movement. This movement consists of artists inspired by calligraphy, ‘liberating’ it from its stricter, traditional practice, and extending it into abstractions, new media, secular themes and more.
California and ‘Oneness’
My husband’s job would move us out west, to Berkeley California where I currently still live and maintain a daily studio practice. I sold many paintings in Pennsylvania when people knew I was leaving, and I was able to pay off the house mortgage!
Northern California has been a fitting artistic home, with its diversity, nature and spiritual openness. Between 2012 and 2020, I received my first artist grants, from the City of Berkeley and the East Bay Community Foundation. I self-published five volumes of poetry and paintings and created sculptural works, some of which stand in public places in both California and Pennsylvania.

As I moved west, my lyrical line also moved, creating new shapes and seeking new connections. From about 2015 the theme of eco-consciousness caught my attention, and I wished to play a role in helping and healing the planet. I created paintings that formed the Our Earth and Embracing All Community series; many were included in shows in California with themes such as Eco-artwork, Women celebrating the untamed, the Language of Nature and more. I self-published a volume called Our Earth: Embracing all Communities.

My most recent exploration looks at mycelia, the great coordinating, underground connection system in forests. Mycelia is my new muse! And for the first time I am adding scientific investigation and research to a project that includes my usual spiritual inquiry and spontaneous explorations of form.
I have found deep satisfaction in my early studies, and find, once again, my lyrical line –one that has been with me my whole life and artistic career – joining the dynamic, filamentous fungi energy. Such connections ask more of me, and of the viewer –all of us connected in responsibility for the planet and all its lifeforms.

Moving into my seventh decade, I feel even more energized to work, connect and share. I started a nonprofit, ‘Oneness Projects,’ through which collaborative and group projects/events can be incubated, and ideas around ‘Oneness’ be explored and manifested. Through group and solo exhibitions, interdisciplinary collaborations, artist talks, workshops and other public programs, the organization will further my life-long passion for unity. (The organization recently received a small grant from the Alameda County Arts Commission).
In my resilient and four-decade long career I have consistently produced work through disruption and (im)migration. My practice spans many media, including painting, sculptures, works on paper, poetry, and multimedia performance. I have produced over 2,000 paintings and sculptures, five art books and countless videos, poems, performances and works on paper.
And I feel like I’m just getting started.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I have realized at this stage in my life that my calling has been towards connecting Humanity and Soil and Soul. I believe in bringing change with my subtle voice and deep intention to heal humanity, soil and soul. So, I have formed Oneness Projects, a nonprofit organization. www.onenessprojects.org

We experience life as separate energy forms, but we also share our energies and exist as One. We are not only One with each other, but One with the Earth, with every living and non-living being in it, and ultimately, we are one with the Divine Essence itself, that we call our Creator and by so many Names.

I hope to awaken that Divine awareness in humanity in these chaotic times to outweigh the harmful and the negative and strive for the ‘beautiful balance.’

Oneness projects are designed to appeal to your compassion and to the spiritual in you and inspire you to create projects with art, music, dance, or other performances to share and spread understanding and eternal love.

Oneness Projects appeal to our compassion and to the spiritual in us and inspire us to create projects with art, music, dance, and poetry to share and spread understanding and unity.

The Oneness Projects will preserve and spread a message of divinely guided oneness, interconnection, and unity by supporting artists and creatives who embody this ideology. Through group and solo exhibitions, interdisciplinary collaborations, artist talks, workshops and other public programs, the organization will further my life-long passion for unity.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Most rewarding experience as a creative is that I can express myself, my thoughts, my reflections through paintings, poetry, sculptures, collaborations and performances. I feel blessed because I was born with two wings- the urge to create and a love for Creation. Both these gifts have been sources of eternal joy and a constant flow of positive inspiration in my life. I work daily and hope to spread the joy and blessings I have received through my work. In my studio mysteries are revealed each day and I feel awed and inspired to delve further into the unknown fearlessly and look out for new visions emerging on my canvas. My works are lyrical, spiritual, layered and flowing, revealing the stories of unity in diversity, hope and connection, celebration of earth and women. The common thread running through my work is that I am seeking oneness among humanity, soil and soul.

Arabic Calligraphy, miniatures, and the folk art are strong influence on my work. I have tried to bring together Eastern spirituality and Western techniques of painting learned over the years. Through the contrasting elements in my work, I yearn and search for unity and balance.

My story begins with a line and the lines that I create represent the spiritual energy that emanates from my soul. My method is a physical and meditative process that fills each canvas with moving lines and multi-layered textures. For me creating art means getting physically involved with the piece: scratching, sanding, layering materials like paper, rope, modeling paste, paper-mache or copper plate, and embroidering with pen and ink. I apply thin layers of acrylic color in between adding textures and this working process brings out subliminal images. I also paint with rust pastels, use jute twine rope on handmade Korean paper Hanji, and apply glaze to seal everything.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://salmaarastu.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/salmaarastu/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/salma.arastu
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salmaarastu/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/salmaarastu
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQUCx_SveHAvFJyO4zJRzOw