It is a spot beyond imagination…
Is rich with many-coloured flowers…

“The Allegorical Garden”

The poetry of Ferdowsi, the Persian poet (935-1020 A.D), and sentiments evoked by his literary tradition have inspired me to create this body of work. For Persians, the garden represents an image of ‘pardis’ – the Persian word for paradise and a place of great happiness and heavenly beauty. The four gardens within pardis are the Garden of the Soul, the Garden of the Heart, the Garden of the Spirit, and the Garden of Truth. The leaf motif which unites this meditative body of work is a recurring element through the reductive woodcut process. Each work is unique and based on a single fixed image: super-imposed, cropped, or solitaire.

Fatima Garzan
BFA, University of Waterloo