We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Soad Kader. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Soad below.

Soad, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

I grew up a child of a mixed race, cross cultural marriage when that kind of union was still taboo, first in megapolis Cairo, Egypt then in college town Davis, California. Even though I cringed every time, I got used to hearing “What are you?”, and not knowing how to answer that and wondering what do they mean? The feelings of not belonging anywhere, living in-between and not being enough of anything or perhaps too much of something never went away. Also when I saw others, especially outsiders being overlooked or being mistreated I felt drawn to stand up for them and call attention to the injustice. In seeing them I saw myself. Social justice became a core value for me before I knew it had a name.

But I still had so much to learn, about finding belonging in myself and about the process of change and how best to create it. I realized that since I had most power over myself I started working there – so much learning to become self aware and see it all – beauty, messy, ugly, and choose what to let go and what to grow. Choose to love myself as I am. I began to see patterns and relationships in behaviors – mine and others, family, friends, society, environment. I realized that we are all interconnected and what we each do can have ripple effects. What if I can make work to help others see that they also have this power? Working from the inside out we can rewrite our lives to reflect our current values and desires. We can choose to see and include all of us in an equitable and uplifting way. We step into our power and create culture forward. We are the ones we have been waiting for.

I create installations representing a diversity of individuals in an interconnected community exploring ideas of listening, self awareness and self empowerment toward consciously creating a vibrant multicultural society. What we focus we can create. My most recent project “Inner Worlds” is process based work weaving back and forth between analog techniques like hand cutting paper and composition and digital formats like photography and printing.This combination of approaches mirrors a multifaceted inquiry to knowing ourselves and finding inclusive solutions to our shared and overlapping challenges. My kaleidoscopic Inner Worlds reference the ancient portraits of my Egyptian heritage reimagined into portals of self awareness highlighting the diverse beauty we have inside us and between us. These abstracted portraits envision conversations we have with ourselves and each other to deepen our listening, seeing, and understanding beyond our outer profiles.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

Growing up with my Egyptian Muslim scientist father and my Basque-Italian-American Catholic do-it-yourselfer maker mother, first in megacity Cairo, Egypt, and then in college town Davis, California was a colorful adventure of multilayered moving and contrasting parts – a living kaleidoscope. Navigating nuances of who I was and how I fit in as a seven year old newly arrived in the United States was awkward and confusing. I dreaded the endless questioning “What are you?” or responding to my name at roll call. I didn’t know the “right” answers to be accepted and felt treated as other, outsider. To blend in I asked my parents, “Can I change my name to Susan?” They said no.

My name, Soad, was given to me in honor of my paternal grandmother as her first grandchild. Translated from Arabic Soad is happiness, joy, bliss, good fortune… all guiding lights for me now in adulthood.
Navigating differences in language and communication, experience, points of view and opinion is a skill I learned early in life out of necessity because my multiracial, multicultural and immigrant experiences first in Egypt and then in California. I create artwork to envision meaningful connection to ourselves and to each other through  practices focusing our attention inward and listening. With intention and humility we can become aware of our personal filters and be open and curious to learn about what may be keeping us apart because of personal blindspots, preconceived notions or misunderstanding and also what lights us up and brings us closer together in vibrant connected community.
My profile silhouttes reference my Egyptian heritage remembering the many reliefs and painted profile portraits of the ancients and they also show us the beauty we all have inside us. If we take time to care for our inner life it will help us connect to ourselves, each other and our environment in more meaningful and fulfilling ways.

My “Inner Worlds” portraits abstract individuals enough so we can each connect to them and see ourselves as well as our community. With intention I include a variety of people and identities. I want us to see ourselves in each other and break the barriers that our social constructs of race and gender among other identifiers create. I want us to look inside ourselves and connect to our realness to become comfortable in our own authentic skin. We can then offer the same grace to everyone else and see beyond outer profiles to connect in deeper ways.

This matters to me so so much because I have spent decades healing wounds of feeling uncomfortable, not enough of this or that, not belonging anywhere, in the in-between. As a child of a multiracial and multicultural union, I could step into many different spaces but I often felt a tug-o-war of insider/outsider and not quite belonging. Becoming comfortable with the fluidity of having many identities at once takes practice, care and understanding that we can be all of ourselves fully and not have to choose or be a fraction of anything. Defining myself for myself and stepping into my full power taking up space and being seen, considered, and included is key to peace, both mine and yours.

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

We try to learn the codes of behavior or appearance that will gain us acceptance from the groups we are a part of or want to be a part of but when this doesn’t match who we actually are often feel emotional, physical, or spiritual discomfort from this lack of alignment or lie we are living. Rather than fitting in, I think we need to feel a sense of belonging. In my creative journey I explore ideas of belonging, multiplicities, self empowerment and self determination. This stems from my personal journey navigating the in-between spaces of my multiracial, multicultural, immigrant heritage and experiences and the process of learning to love all of myself and unlearning all that got in the way of it. In my quest to feel comfortable in my own skin as I wholly am, I found that developing and nourishing self love and self acceptance practices are keys to belonging and wellbeing. My mission is to pass this on. “Love yourself. Love yourself. Love yourself. This imperative is the motto of belonging. Our sense of freedom and joy depends on it. When we truly love ourselves, we don’t need to be someone or something else. When we love ourselves, our sense of separation softens, the need to dominate dissolves. Comparison and competition clear away in the presence of self-love. Hierarchy and oppression crumble. We belong.” ~Sebene Selassie

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I am pivoting right now! Pandemic waves got me too and I was laid off from my day job. I felt vulnerable and worried but luckily I had some savings to rely on at first. For over two decades after finishing my art education, I created, showed and sold my artwork while holding down a full-time job as a membership director of a small not for profit medical malpractice provider. What?! I thought that job wouldn’t take too much out of me, but it did! It felt like I was tethered to a heavy weight keeping me from fully becoming my whole true self and making the contributions I am here to make.

I realize now that I was allowing my fear to hold me back, following what was in my subconscious (and society) shouting “artists can’t make a living with their artwork, keep your day job”. This rampant message is such hypocrisy when the arts make our lives more connected, joyful, meaningful and visible to each other. How many folks would get through a pandemic lockdown sanely without beauty, music, movies, and making stuff?

So although I felt the fear of losing my paycheck, I also felt relieved to step more fully into who I am and what I’m here to do. I’m an artist bringing awareness to seeing life from multiple perspectives, to living our lives more consciously, more joyously and to making choices that are truly right for us each day while also building our communities in holistic ways. With lots of color! Who and what we choose to support with our time, money, and love matters deeply to creating beautiful and sustainable lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.studiosoad.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/studiosoad/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtistSoad

Image Credits
Amy Ahlstrom, Soad Kader, Hernán Gómez, Sami Kader and Jeremy Joven