We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Fawzia Khan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Fawzia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I was a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist for three years before I gave birth to my child. I wanted to quit working to stay home and be a mom. My employer recommended career counseling. One of our first homework assignments was to make a timeline of our lives to date. I struggled to get everything on an 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper in pen. In my small group, there was an artist. When he presented his timeline, it blew me away. He had used a roll of white paper 2′ in width and several feet long on which he had drawn his timeline using markers and crayons in large letters. I felt something open up inside me and I knew I wanted to be able to think like that.

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?

I am a Pakistani-American immigrant and former physician who left medicine after the birth of my child. After attending the career counseling session I described in the previous question, I took the Strong Inventory Index which revealed equal interests in Creative and Structured pursuits.

We relocated to the Midwest and I joined the Quilters’ Guild and volunteered to edit their newsletter. This led me to thinking about pursuing a career in Graphic Design. I enrolled in Minnesota State University Moorhead, and after a year and a half, I decided to major in Fine Art with an emphasis in Sculpture. We moved again and I transferred to the University of Minnesota and graduated in 2005.

I am a multidisciplinary visual artist. My identity and lived experience inform the themes I focus on, particularly religion, feminism, and motherhood. My work is best described as social commentary calling out inconsistencies in human interactions, traditions, and belief systems in a search to encourage compassion, empathy, and acceptance with both logic and aesthetic seduction. My work is beautiful from a distance and closer inspection reveals underlying messages that make viewers think about important social issues. I am interested in what unites us. My hope is that the work sparks a deep conversation amongst the viewers through which they see the “other’s” point of view and in doing so acknowledge our common humanity. This creates an opportunity for understanding and resolution.

I am a member of two national multiethnic artist collectives, the Habibtis and the Paglees, and the Interfaith Artists Circle in the Twin Cities. My work is included in public and private collections and I am one of the featured artists on the Twin Cities Public Television program MNOriginal. I am a current member of Form + Content Gallery in Minneapolis, MN.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Creative people struggle to make money. They do what they do for the love of their art. It is very difficult to make a living as an artist. As a creative, my focus is making art not money. And it is art that is personal. Many creatives I know have jobs that pay the bills and are making art on the side. I am very fortunate that I am supported by my spouse. I do not want to be a production artist, making work to sell at art fairs. I don’t want to make work that I think others will like or buy. There are some artists who love doing that and I applaud them for it. I tried it for a while but quickly came to the conclusion that it was not for me. I want to engage with others through my art, trying to make something visually that expresses a point of view or raises questions for discussion, sharing my insights.

I hate the question, “Where do you get your ideas?” If I knew that, I would never get the equivalent of writer’s block. I try to be open to experiences and information and it all gets processed somehow. It may look like I’m not doing anything for long periods of time and then a burst of creativity has me working long hours until a project is done. Deadlines help. Some creatives work every day, doing something. They may set a goal of writing 5 pages a day or making a daily sketch. Dancers stretch and practice daily. I look at other artists’ work for inspiration as well.

Art is work. There is a lot of experimentation and failure. It may look easy but it’s not. A lot of what I do never ends up in a final piece but it is all a learning experience. I am always learning new things and that keeps me and my work fresh. I frequently hear from people that once they hear an artist talk about a work and its meaning and how it came to be, they have a new understanding and appreciation for what they are seeing.

The other thing non-creatives may not know is that artists, being self-employed entrepreneurs, have to spend a lot of time promoting themselves, using social media, applying to multiple opportunities for residencies, grants, and exhibitions (few of which are accepted), bookkeeping etc. People are always looking for artists to donate for a good cause. Unless you are highly successful, you have to pay to ship your work to exhibitions. Artists are rarely paid what they are worth. It is not unusual to be contacted by someone who “absolutely loves” your work, only to never hear from them again once they hear how much it costs. Many artists I know often downgrade the value of their work. Creatives don’t have pension plans or 401Ks. They have to earn enough to make a profit to pay into Social Security unless they have another job.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I think art can be a force for social change. It can create empathy and can be healing and cathartic. Human beings do not respond to statistics the way they respond to stories of individuals. They can be moved by a play or music that appeals to their emotions and tells a story that makes it real. My goal is to make people think, really think about difficult issues and their complexities, realizing that all actions have consequences, and also to give them hope.

I will repeat myself here. “I am interested in what unites us. My hope is that the work sparks a deep conversation amongst the viewers through which they see the “other’s” point of view and in doing so acknowledge our common humanity. This creates an opportunity for understanding and resolution.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fawziakhanart.com
• Instagram: @fawziakhanart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fawzia-khan-a202b429

Image Credits

Rik Sferra, Christopher Selleck, Andrew Hinkle