Laurie’s synopsis of events that have led to the United Nations Exhibit

Shiraz, City of Paradise and Dialogue Among Civilizations originating in Iran from former President Khatami

I am an American artist who has painted in Iran and has found a close connection between my work and the Dialogue Among Civilizations.

In my youth I envisioned beautiful magical birds and avidly frequented and lost myself in the woods and flower gardens of my childhood dwellings. I was also entranced with fairy tales, which I feel have also a secret language of an inner world unique to each Culture in the World. I was deeply affectly as a child by my Russian heritage. On my seventh birthday, I was ushered into a new world of magnificent art and music: The Bolshoi Ballet's debut in America of The Nutcracker Suite at The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City! Later I attended the High School of Art and Design in New York City, Philadelphia College of Art and the New York Studio School Of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture started by Hans Hoffman. While painting in the Studio School one day in 1972, the black and white drab tapestry before me suddenly was transformed into massive color shapes like islands breaking apart in space. Perhaps my visit to Tangier, Morocco the previous summer had indelibly imprinted my consciousness with its intensely vibrant and colorful landscape. A few months later I was given Nizami’s "Leyli and Majnun” to read and I instantly recognized my heart’s calling. I began to paint from its Persian Miniatures. I realized that here was a symbolic language spoken through the paintings and the poetry and I was determined to grasp its meaning.

I had this understanding of flowers, animals and natural beauty ever since I was a child and I experienced a communion with them. I was able to communicate my feelings through my paintings and these feelings could be grasped in an instant without spoken words. The symbols expressed in a silent language, the beauty of the hidden world through the sense of Feeling. In 2003-2004, I journeyed to Iran three times, spending three months painting in its glorious gardens on each trip. It was in Shiraz that I discovered my Inner Garden and I painted this Outer Garden: Bagh-e-Eram, which made me capable of painting my Inner Garden within me. In 2004, The Shiraz Cultural Institute compared my paintings to the ancient Shiraz School of Miniature Painting and said they would be proud to call me a Shiraz artist henceforth. I remembered that the Shiraz School painted the Persian Miniature Paintings of “Leyli and Majnun” and I felt I had come full circle. The Foreign Ministry granted me a show of my paintings at the Tomb Shrine of Hafez in Shiraz in December of 2004-5. Mr. Navid of The Shiraz Cultural Institute said, “Laurie is from the West and we are from the East but her paintings show the Real Dialogue Among Civilizations. I asked him what that meant and he said, “Our President Khatami gave a speech and said, ‘What we need is not war between Civilizations but the Real Dialogue among Civilizations.’” Mr. Navid, explained to the group, “Artists might say this line isn’t right or that line isn’t right, but Laurie paints with Feeling, and that’s something new!” When I came to NY in 2005, I met former Cultural Ambassador to the UN, Mehdi Faridzadeh and he told me, “You are unique! No one has ever gone into Iran and painted it and brought it back to show the world, your paintings should be in the UN.” I told him that the Cultural Institute of Shiraz said my paintings showed the Real Dialogue Among Civilizations and he said, “I wrote the book.”

He introduced me to Dr. Bahrami of the Mission of Iran to the UN in the Spring of 2007 and since then, the Iran Mission and I have become very close and worked very well together. Then in July 2007 they gave me an exhibition of my paintings of Shiraz at the United Nations entitled “Shiraz, City of Paradise-Dialogue Among Civilizations Through Art.” It was a great success.” One gallery owner told me, “Your paintings are not mere paintings that you hang on the wall and see with your eyes, but they are like beautiful literature that elevates the soul.” Now I am working on the illustrations for my new book, an original adaptation of Farid Ud-Din'Attar’s Conference of the Birds. It is called Language of the Birds- It Is All the Mirror of God. There will be thirty to forty paintings of different birds and a unique dialogue between the thirty birds and the Hoopoe.

In October-November of 2007, The National Arts Club made me an honorary member and invited me to have a show of 52 of my paintings of Iran, Turkey and India. The show was entitled: “The Feeling of My Inner World- Shiraz, City of Roses and Nightingales.”

I had met Mahmoud Farshchian in 2003 at his show at Sa’adabad in Teheran and we had many enlightening conversations afterwards. I drew my painting Conference of the Birds for him in 2004 and he kept it for three weeks and then told me, “You will be successful!” Now he came to my National Arts Club exhibition and saw the finished painting and said it was perfect. He asked me how long it took to paint my three Persian Miniature paintings and I told him two weeks and he said, “You are a great painter.” I told him I felt it was a gift from God and I did not do it but it was a great honor to hear this praise from a Master and he replied, “I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.” Then he asked how long my Peacocks painting took and I said five days and he said, “You are great!” I said, God didn’t give me money but he gave me the Master of my art to tell me I was doing the right thing.” He encouraged me to put my paintings in a book as soon as possible, saying, “Shiraz and Hafez are not just for Iranians; they are for the whole world.” He also told me, “Your paintings are very strong, the colors are clean, clear and sharp and it shows your heart.” Then he said, looking around at all the paintings, “I feel like I am in the Garden of Paradise.” After visiting the exhibition at the National Arts Club, Mr. Farshchian said: "On the art exhibition of Laurie blum: I visited the exhibition in November 2007, at the National Arts Club- New York. I saw harmonious, pure colors and images of flowers, trees, and birds. There is a theme of peace and unity in the works of Laurie Blum. With hopes of much success for her, Mahmoud Farshchian"