Reem Taki was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1960. She graduated in 1983 with a degree in French literature from Damascus University. After getting married, she moved to Amman, Jordan, where she raised three children. Reem has Experienced with several different kinds of art, but discovered Persian Islamic art was her true passion in 2010. She studied the art of miniatures & received her certificate from Dr. Mohammad Bagher Aghamiri. She was diagnosed with breast cancer and during her radiation and chemotherapy treatment she found solace and hope in her art. She immigrated to the United States in September 2014 and she lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Miniatures require a lot of time and patience - some pieces can take hundreds of hours. Larger pieces can require a few months of daily painting. Reem uses guache, watercolor, poster, and mixed media; she also hand-makes some of her colors—for example, she makes her brown from walnut shells, tea, and coffee beans, black from coal, gold from real gold, red from pomegranate, and other colors from stones found in nature.

Her art was most recently exhibited in Algeria, where she was selected to represent Syria among several artists from around the world. This particular collection of art pieces were inspired by stories from the Arab and Persian culture, (like the 1001 Nights); especially the stories that focus on women.

 

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Shehrezad & the King Shehreyar: in this painting, she illustrates the brilliance of Shehrezard, who used storytelling to outsmart the king Shehrayar. The King would marry a new woman and kill her the next morning—Shehrezad told him a story so compelling every night that he would have no choice but to put off her execution so he could hear the rest of it. Finally, he falls in love and spares her life. The painting depicts him on his knee, asking for her forgiveness as the sun rises behind them.

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Dunyazad: the sister of Shehrezad. This painting represents sisterly love, where Dunyazad would go out every night and pray for the safety of her sister. The moon is depicted with flowers because it represents the life of her sister. As long as the moon was in the sky, her sister was safe.

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Ja’afar: father of Shahrazad and the minister of king Shahrayar. He was responsible for the execution of the King’s wives daily- based on king’s orders. He kept executing them for years until all single women either were murdered or ran away. Then, Shahrazad offered to marry the king. At the end of the story, father of Shahrazad travels to Samarqand”City” as Shah zaman was annoninted “Sultan”.

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The Bird Whisperer: This painting represents that a woman’s heart cannot be bought by material things. It shows a woman dressed in gold locked in a palace by a king, in the hope that she might love him, but her sad expression reflects the fact that she dreams only of her freedom. She talks to the birds and asks for any word of the outside world.

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The Lady on Her Throne: this painting represents a woman in control of her life-she is the queen of her castle. It is beyond the material things she possesses or the finery she wears.

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The Bird and the Tulip: this painting represents burning love. There is an old Persian story that tells a tale of two lovers who were separated, and the woman eventually died. The man threw himself from a mountain and from each drop of his blood a red tulip sprang up.

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The Broken Vessel: the endless giving of a loyal woman, even when her heart is broken. This is based off of an old folktale, where a woman carried a broken clay pitcher every day to the well. The pitcher finally speaks to the woman one day and asks her why she continues to use it, even though it spills half of its contents onto the ground every day. The woman tells the pitcher that its water has helped flowers to grow along the path.

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Jasmine and the Flying Carpet: Representing the ambition, dreams, & romantic side of a woman looking to the future.

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The Little Mermaid: this illustrates the degree of sacrifice that woman can make when she is truly in love. The painting depicts the two worlds of the mermaid—the fish and sea creatures below, and the family she is leaving behind, and the birds and animals above.

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Sunrise: This painting means the hope and new life, the Sun in A Thousand And One Nights meant life again to Shehrazad and she is like that to us as well. But in this exact story, sunrise saved Shehrazad from death, and in the end Shehrazad won the heart of the king, and was appointed queen of his heart and kingdom. And she felt victorious and strong (the sun always means strength). As for birds they mean replacing fear with love, happiness, and spring.

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