How do we portray someone without making their portrait? Every person has a certain emotion attached to them. Catching that emotion and expressing it is the goal behind my work. Similar to humans, I see emotions in objects as well. Metals look strict, Grass seems innocent, flowers depict growth and glass shows fragile vulnerabilities. This builds connections between the living and the non living and gives me a base to experiment upon. This thought was triggered by the fact that my culture doesn’t allow us to paint any living things. The Islamic culture believes that there is only one who creates life, and anyone else trying to recreate a living being does not have the right to do so. When I began this journey, I used to paint objects for formalistic study only. As I went on to develop my thoughts, I started seeing them as much more than what they were. Flowers, for example, are considered romantic when in the hair of a lady, and religious, when on one’s grave. I began my research from my culture itself. I would visit mosques and see how all different kinds of people would come in with different emotions, vibrations and feelings. But that one rug placed below their feet, bought them all together. This inspired me to introduce the element of a rug in my still life to bind together all the subjects of my work. Initially, I referred to the objects available in my home and studied the emotions connected to them. My grandmother had some old utensils that would be used only for special occasions like Eid. She would get together all my cousins to clean and arrange them for the guests. This strengthened our bond and created some core memories. When I painted these for my still life, they represented a portrayal of my childhood memories. As I went through academic training in college, I started to think of my subject in a social sense as well. This helped me turn my focus to how the audience sees my paintings and what it means to them. I worked on instilling hope and contentment through my work in the hearts of people. I feel accomplished with my work when people connect their own thoughts to my depictions and find themselves in my works. During my academic training, I studied the works of impressionists, and saw how they changed their viewpoints on the subjects that they painted. I was intrigued by their spontaneity and their unique perspectives to approach their works, both in a physical and emotional sense. Monet, Manet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Berthe Morisot were the artists that inspired me I see that many people today have a misconception that still life is not a powerful subject and is to be kept for academic study only. I wish to change this thought through my works by exhibiting them at various platforms.