We recently connected with Behnaz Ghasempour and have shared our conversation below.

Behnaz, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I don’t remember a single moment; it was more like a slow, steady unfolding. Growing up in Iran, I was always drawn to images, textures, and the quiet act of making. Even as a child, drawing and painting were how I made sense of the world; it was my way of processing emotion, memory, and all the things I couldn’t say out loud. Over time, it became clear that art was not just something I loved; it was something I needed to do.

Choosing art as a professional path wasn’t always easy. In my culture, especially during my teenage years, the arts weren’t widely encouraged as a career. Many of my peers were steered toward medicine or engineering, but my parents gave me something rare: the freedom to choose. They saw how deeply I cared about drawing and painting, and supported me not only emotionally, but also practically, by enrolling me in classes, encouraging me to pursue it seriously, and treating it as something meaningful. That support meant everything.

Later, as I moved into academic and professional spaces, I came to understand that art could be more than personal; it could be a form of cultural and emotional resistance, a way of speaking when words fail. Pursuing my MFA in the United States has deepened that understanding. I’ve learned that my art can build bridges between people, between cultures, and between memory and the present moment.

So, while I didn’t wake up one day knowing I’d be a professional artist, I grew into that identity slowly and fully. It was a path shaped by silence, shaped by observation, and ultimately shaped by choice.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Behnaz Ghasempour. I am an Iranian visual artist currently pursuing my MFA in Studio Art in the United States. My artistic journey is rooted in the exploration of human connection and emotional memory. Drawing is at the heart of my practice; it is my first and most intimate language for processing presence, absence, and interior life. Alongside drawing, I work with materials such as copper and thread, which carry deep personal, symbolic, and cultural significance. These elements provide a tactile means of articulating what cannot be easily expressed through words.

My entry into the world of art began in early childhood, supported wholeheartedly by my family. In a culture where artistic careers were often undervalued, especially for young women, my parents allowed me the freedom to choose my own path. That trust gave me the courage to pursue art not as a decorative pursuit, but as a meaningful way of thinking, feeling, and connecting with the world.

Today, my work blends drawing, material exploration, and multi-sensory installations that engage themes such as migration, separation, longing, empathy, and emotional ties. My recent body of work, The Invisible Threads, is a multimedia project that delves into emotional and cultural connections through drawing, copper, thread, and light. These works not only offer viewers space for personal reflection but also participate in broader intercultural and social conversations.

What distinguishes my work is its commitment to attuning to silence, softness, and the delicate aspects of human vulnerability. In a world driven by speed and surface, I aim to create spaces that invite pause, attention, and emotional experience. For me, art is not a commodity; it is a site of human connection.

More than anything, I take pride in having followed my own path with honesty, patience, and loyalty to my roots, refusing to confine myself to conventional molds. Rather than solving defined problems, my work seeks to bridge the personal and collective, the intimate and the historical. Many who engage in my work describe a feeling of recognition, as if they have lived part of the story I am telling.

For those seeking artwork that speaks across emotional, cultural, and cross-cultural dimensions, or for those looking for moments of internal reflection and meaningful connection, my practice offers a quiet but resonant space. In addition to my studio work, I am committed to fostering intercultural artistic exchange, whether through exhibitions or collaborative projects with fellow creatives. My goal is to share these quiet but resilient narratives of memory, connection, and endurance with audiences across the world.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

For me, resilience has never been loud or dramatic; it’s been quiet, steady, and deeply internal. I first began to understand it as a teenager in Iran, when I chose to pursue art in a cultural context that often prioritized fields like medicine and engineering. At a time when many students were steered away from the arts, my parents gave me the freedom to choose for myself. That support, simple yet profound, was the foundation of my resilience: the ability to follow what I truly believed in, even when the path wasn’t clear or conventional.

Years later, moving to the U.S. to pursue an MFA was one of the most challenging transitions of my life. I entered a world where the language, culture, and creative expectations were unfamiliar. I had to find a way to express deeply personal experiences of displacement, memory, and longing in a space that didn’t yet feel like home. There were moments of isolation, of uncertainty, of deep homesickness. And yet, it was precisely in those quiet, in-between spaces that my project, The Invisible Threads, was born.

Rather than turn away from what I was feeling, I invited it into my work. I gave shape to distance through drawing. I wove memory into thread. I let silence speak through material. For me, resilience is exactly this: staying with discomfort and transforming it into something that can be felt and shared. It’s the willingness to be vulnerable, and in that vulnerability, to create new ways of connecting.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Yes, my creative journey is deeply driven by a desire to explore and preserve the emotional and cultural threads that connect us, especially those that are often invisible or unspoken. As an Iranian artist, I carry within me the dual experience of presence and distance, of belonging and separation, and I try to turn these complexities into spaces of reflection and connection.

My mission is to create work that invites viewers to pause, feel, and remember. Whether through drawing, materials, or sensory installations, I aim to give form to inner experiences that are often overlooked, like longing, silence, fragility, and resilience. I believe that art can open subtle emotional landscapes where people can encounter their own memories and those of others, across cultures and distances.

Ultimately, my work is not only about expression but about creating bridges between past and present, between people, between what is said and what remains unsaid. That is the heart of my creative path.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.behnazghasempour.com/
• Instagram: behnaz.ghp
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/behnaz-gh-6420b61b9
• Other: Email: [email protected]