We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nadia Zaki a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Nadia, thanks for joining us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?
I hope that after I am no longer a part of this world , people will remember me as someone who tried to make a difference to the world not through grand acts of service, but through the little ones. Every painting I have made has had meaning behind it, and I hope that message transcends long after I am gone.
Nadia, 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?
Hey! My name is Nadia Zeeshan and I am an artist and owner of my Islamic art business “Nadiazartistry.” I started painting and drawing as a child and it was the only hobby I enjoyed. It was always more of a pastime back then and I eventually gave it up once I started College. Fast forward years later after getting married and having kids, I randomly picked up that dusty paintbrush again and started painting once more. I loved the feeling of being able to pen my thoughts visually again, so this time I didn’t stop.
I love reading about Prophetic stories and visualizing performed miracles on canvas. Some other themes I focus on frequently are “patience” and “afterlife” and how being mindful of both concepts can get us through life. I paint many abstract landscapes, sunsets, and oceans and tie them in with beautiful scripture verses. I believe in water therapy and spend a lot of time at the beach. It has become part of my creative process to collect beach sand, beach glass, and sea shells from all the beaches I have visited and incorporate them as textures in my paintings. I like the idea of taking a little bit of something everywhere I go and bringing it back with me. Most recently, on my trip to Myrtle Beach, I collected some beautiful relics such as oyster shells, sand, and coral and brought them back. I can’t wait to incorporate them into my next project. I’m most proud of how I’ve conveyed subtle messages through my paintings and found like-minded people who instantly connect with my work. What sets me apart from other artists is studying religion from a slightly different perspective and incorporating multiple religions and teachings in my art. Interfaith unity, diversity, and inclusion are prominent themes in my work.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
I am not a quitter. I started this business from scratch and built it to what it is today. It has taken a lot of patience and time on my part to be where I am today.
My Husband and my parents are the ones who provided me with my initial capital to start my business. I started with $300 gifted to me by my parents and a stash of high quality paints and canvases my husband had gifted me. My husband and parents have always been supportive of my passion for art and their support was all I needed to get moving. I created 6 paintings with the art supplies I had been gifted and received ; posted pictures of them on my newly created instagram handle and the rest is history. I leveraged my social media to my benefit and found avid supporters and collectors who were looking for the exact type of art I made and covered my initial capital almost immediately and reinvested in more supplies . Eventually I grew large enough to spend revenue on adverting and marketing and grew a loyal following . There are no short cuts to success, just hard work and resilience.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
This ties in to the previous question. I manufacture my art by hand as I sell original paintings. However after the first year of selling art and receiving requests to recreate my intricate paintings, I decided to offer prints and canvas prints of my work. This provided me with an additional income and took some pressure off of me to produce art work constantly. In the beginning I bought a high quality printer and made prints myself, but the costs of production and shipping were giving me minimal profits so I ended up finding a trusted third party who could print and ship my prints to my clients at a reasonable cost without compromising quality. The lesson I have learnt is that it takes a lot of trial and error to figure out what works best for you and your business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nadiazeeshan.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nadiazartistry/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100032787356385&_rdr
- Linkedin: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/nadia-zaki-ab753321
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/NadiaDecor?t=4ZkWj4YUtg9kbNqKmIOz2A&s=03
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRw0YP1MvwEv-_l7fhgtx3g