Street Art on Oil /Persian and Arabic graffiti and Street Art غرافیتی العربی

Spray 2011 : Iranian Graffiti Jam in Tehran

2011-10-17T21:49:00.000-07:00

Kolahstudio in IRAN has just made a big event Hosted By Adrenaline -A modern Water Sports Club in South of Tehran.Spray 2011 was A Big noise , a new begining for the graffiti in IRAN. a new horizon of hope.
You can see more photos and get more information at www.kolahstudio.com/spray2011

A very nice Mural by Aerosolarabic in Bristol

2011-09-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

Be The Change You Want To See from DARCUS CLARKE on Vimeo.

A1one 70 meters Commissioned Wall in IRAN

2011-08-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

Time To Support Iran

2011-08-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

Our Friends in IranGraffiti need all Graffiti lovers and middle east Writers to support by pushing the like button of Their community page :

http://www.facebook.com/irangraffiti

Dare to share and invite others

Street Art - Street Life

2011-07-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

KolahStudio in IRAN published a Call For Artists for their upcoming PDF Issue ...
Check by yourself http://www.kolahstudio.com/underground/?p=979

Goo Interviews Ganzeer From Egypt

2011-07-22T23:55:00.000-07:00

GOO:Would you please talk a little bit about your self?Where Do you live and work? and how often are you working?

Ganzeer: I live and work, for the most part, in Cairo, Egypt. I work everyday, but not in the form of street art. Depending on the subject matter and the idea I have in relation to it, I will pick a medium/venue to work in. Sometimes it'll be a wall, other times it'll be the internet, sometimes it'll be a drawing, other times writing, and for example, in the case of this week: surveying.

GOO:Do you have access to spray paint in Egypt?

Ganzeer: Sure. It's not very good spray-paint, nor is it designed to create sophisticated pieces of artwork with.

GOO:What do you use for your street art? Stencil/Graffiti style/Stickers/Pasteups?

Ganzeer: Whatever I can to get my idea across. So far, I've come to use stencils, stickers, and in one particular case, garbage bags.

GOO:Who or What are your inspirations?

Ganzeer: The work of other artists is of course inspirational. I'm a big comicbook buff, so comix have a big influence on me. But the greatest inspiration of all is life.

GOO:What do you think about recent changes in Egyptian Governmental systems?is it good or bad for you as an Artist?

Ganzeer: It's a little bit of both. It's good that the Egyptian people have risen in mass to topple the system, but changes in the system so far are unfortunately not the kind of changes we fought for, even though the government is trying to convince people that it is, using the media, and a lot of people are buying into the government's crap. As an artist, it's an opportunity to be pro-active and use one's tools for a passionate cause.

GOO:Do you do legal or illegal Street Art?

Ganzeer: I guess it would be considered illegal.

GOO:Are You aware of Graffiti scene in Middleeast? Tehran,Beirut,Dubai,etc.does it have any impact on you at all?

Ganzeer: Honestly, man, none whatsoever. Would love to travel across the Arab world more and experience it, and its people, first hand. And maybe get a chance to do a few public interventions here and there.

GOO:Are there Any other StreetArt Workers ,there in Egypt?

Ganzeer: Some of the most prominent ones in recent months, in my opinion, are Keiser, Adham Bakry, El Teneen, and Sad Panda.

GOO: Any thing you like to say?

Ganzeer: Thanks for the opportunity, and great blog, man!
Ganzeer Web URL at Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/ganzeer/

Deform Industry Peace In Dubai

2011-05-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

photo © FRES
By Deformindustry : deformindustry.blogspot.com

Some Arabic Graffiti in IRAN

2011-05-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

I do luv the one Below>>>

all arabic graffiti and street art works by A1one : tehranwalls.blogspot.com

Arabic Graffiti Book : Real or Fake?

2011-04-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

Some years ago after the revolutionary Inovations of A1one(Iranian Graffiti pioneer who made a great path for Arabic ,persian and urdu Graffiti ) ,Tehran's Graffiti vibrations influenced a gerneration of youth world wide and in the middleeast. one example was Presence of A1one in The Website of Khtt.org and influencing a graphic Designer Pascal Zoghbi and Don Karl Stone (a german publisher or graffiti books).Stone went to Lebanon and helped Zoghbi learn more about graffiti and made a graffiti teaching workshop for the youth over there .... in a couple of years they made a book "Arabic Graffiti" which may be cool to see with works of eauropean designers and calligraphers +some street art examples from middleeast.But for thosewho know THe reality about the thing.... It is not a book with real information but with some Good info for beginners .There is alot which is not included in this book ,Works of Some Iranian Artists who made this path is excluded from the book ...Artists like A1one,Kozet,Khamoosh,Kaytee are those real and hidden parts of the story yet.

The publisher believes that:
"'Arabic Graffiti' is an extensive and valuable reference that showcases the use of Arabic script in a contemporary, urban context. It brings together artists, graffiti writers, designers, and typographers from the Middle East and around the world who merge Arabic calligraphy with the art of graffiti writing, street art and urban culture. In addition to a rich assortment of photos featuring Arabic graffiti and street art styles, the book includes essays by distinguished authors and scene experts that explore the traditional elements, modern approaches, and the socio-political and cultural backgrounds which have shaped Arabic graffiti movements in the Middle East.

With contributions and essays by: Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès, Rana Jarbou, Tala F. Saleh, Houda Kassatly and William Parry.

Includes the artwork and thoughts of: Hassan Massoudy, Malik Anas Al-Rajab, eL Seed, Hest1, Julien Breton, L'ATLAS, Aerosol Arabic, Native & ZenTwO, Zepha aka Vincent Abadie Hafez, Siska, Typism, Akut and many more."

Eid Mubarak Animation By El-Seed From Canada

2010-11-18T05:38:00.000-08:00

www.elseed-art.com

Arabic Letter Graffiti style by A1one From Teheran - Iran

2010-10-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

artist has recently made his personal website : www.a1one.info

El Seed

2010-04-10T01:47:00.000-07:00

I am so sure that all friends of Graffiti on Oil and also all arabic type lovers will enjoy to see these great pieces by A talented Artist -El SEED - who have done such an amazing stuff in Montreal - Canada lately .Stay tuned for more more pieces and news By El Seed

The new paths for arabic graffiti

2009-12-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

The new gerneration of Graffiti in Lebanon and middleeast.After Iran and A1one's Legendary Appraoches now we are seeing some bloomings from the lebanon,Egypt and some other Arab countries ....now the Academic institutes paid attention to Graffiti culture and we hope it makes it better than worst.

German Graffiti Writer Don Karl is teaching Lebanese youth to paint with spray and do Graffiti.(the project was done by help of Goethe Institute.also introduced the participants to the techniques, cultural history and social relevance of Graffiti art in the first day. The following two days were drawing and sketching for the young artists to express their thoughts on paper. During the last two days the workshop participants created graffiti on a public wall “Mal’ab al-Muharram, Bahsas” in Tripoli. The theme of the joint artwork was “Culture is dialog”.

First street art show in the Middleeast

2009-10-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

it was a nice fact i found in web that Street art of middleeast and Islamic countries has been started from IRAN's capital city. it is also great that they have made the first ever show of its kind in 2007 a group show with participamnts from all around the world here is a video i took from Graffiti TV

Nice backgrounds
http://www.kolahstudio.com/spray2007

Facebook Page we made For A1one and persian Graffiti

2009-05-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

check this hot shit/
Soon you will see a lot of Black book pages and Bside Things from A1one-Aka Tanha-From IRAN

Just Click here and join the group and cool if you make a Link from your Website or facebook Account:
Click Here

Call For Blackbook Pages

2009-02-15T07:09:00.000-08:00

Graffiti on Oil blog is all about its favorite process on growth of Urban Style ,arabic letters graffiti / = \so we seek to make an online track of all the process... Now, Starting the G.O.O PDF zine ...as the first issue of the seasonal publishing planned Ezine ,I invite You ! possible artists ! your kindly submittions (of your Scetches,Works on paper,B/W or in colors)for the first issue which will be promoted enough to be seen through urban art related websites.=+/.

Any Middleeastern based Urban Artists,graphic designers ,Painters
and even photographers(in case of relation withthe subject) are
welcomed to take part with
minimum 4,maximum 10 digital images
of their
handworks on paper...
We need more Lettering and styles than Figures and images...
Alongside
with the images we also need thes information to drop with your pages to be
published.

Any will to help with Contributing any useful articles,Photo reviews or Independant Ads swap please contect : mr.goome [at] gmail [dot] com

Artist name:
Nationality:
Website URL:
Size of Digital images : Minimum 1000x600 Pixles
Deadline for Sending pages+information: 30 March 2009

Email : mr.goome [at] gmail [dot] com
Looking forward to some submissions from the brothers around the Arabic ,and persian language countries.

Alone News

2009-01-26T20:01:00.000-08:00

Just Look at this nice arabic style (persian language) handstyle and graffs...

A1one has also won a Prize at Urbantactics.de on Experimental Handstyle Competition in Germany

check more of this artist at : http://tehranwalls.blogspot.com/

Spray art Exhibition in Tehran / Graffiti in Gallery

2009-01-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

Kolahstudio One of The first roots of Graffiti and Urban style arabic letter graffiti Guy A1one have an Especial exhibition /Festival of spray in two basement like galleries in Tehran ,they have rented for this Show to exhibit Original Samples of Quality spray Art and Stencil from European ,Australian and Iranian Artists to celebrate the Spray art andcuture for thefirst time in their country.

A1one says that the show gonna be great,even wit some disrespects and lack of cooperation from the younger artists but he claims he had tried his best to select and invite a Good selection of Artists Like Kozet and Rash from IRAN and Artists like Satta Van Daal (Australia),Fake(netherlands),Seldon(Australia) ,Leckomio from Germany and .... who have helped the studio to make a dish full of Good food for the audience + Gathering a Black and white magazine with educating articles about Graffiti and Street Art vs Vandalism and Consumer Culture. and having some novel Ideas of Having moder poets ,perform at the show and more are the plan which is going to be done through 16 jan 09 for a week. more info is available at the exhibition webpage : http://www.kolahstudio.com/spray1387 <

and the page from the first Exhbition of its kind in Tehran here : http://www.kolahstudio.com/spray2007
Good luck with the show and we hope to have some good photos of the show in the oncoming week.

Icy From Tabriz

2009-01-10T03:50:00.000-08:00

Works Of Spray letters and Stencils from ICY a young Stencil artist living in TABRIZ city(Persian: تبریز, Azerbaijani: تبریز) is the largest city in northwestern Iran. you can see more works of ICY in irangraffiti.blogspot archive also in his flickr album.

Graffiti Crew in Lebanon

2009-01-06T01:40:00.000-08:00

Ashkeman is a Rap crew In lebanon Who have lately started graff back in 2008 on Beirut /lebanon / Middleeast...check these works...

American University of Dubai adverts Graffiti

2008-11-30T19:56:00.000-08:00

Oct of 2008 The American University of Dubai invited Albus Cavus a New Jersey Based Artist Collective to do a workshop and collaborative mural with its art students. After a thorough tour of the campus they decided which wall they may like to work on but first it was time to get the students in sync with what they wanted to do, and introduce to them ,their own distinct method on how we create. Customarily Chor Boogie and Pose Two create from within, meaning we have no preconceived plan of what we are going to create before we create it. We trust, flow and integrate intuitively as painters, as artist and as human beings. We have come to a point of understanding the importance of the process: interacting and engaging with the moment at hand, seizing those opportunities and flowing with them…aliveness!We had no doubts that this awesome group of students would be able to flow with us but most of these students never used spray paint, our number one tool! Aware of this fact we decided to first allow the students an opportunity to play, get free and express on some canvass boards. What was supposed to be a few moments of trial and practice turned into hours joy and pure expressionism. Although these students never touched a spray can before their individuality and collective spirit shone through and they were ready to collaborate with us.This project offered Albus Cavus a great opportunity to work with photographers, painters, sculptures and enthusiast who a helped create a wonderful mural that captures the spirit of Dubai the energy of its youth and its vision to create a beautiful city with powerful art.

some word from pose2 ( Amercian graffiti writter):
Experiences like these are life enriching and eye opening. Hopefully this exchange of creative energy will help raise the frequency in our hearts and minds to increasingly love, share and cultivate our beautiful future

Ko3et From IRAN

2008-11-23T19:52:00.001-08:00

more from Kozet at : http://stickykozet.blospot.com

Arabic inspired Graffiti wall in Montreal

2008-11-22T03:54:00.000-08:00

not sure what was the Artist's name ... we need to know if any one knows ...

GAFF Boys from Mashad

2008-10-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

From NorthEast Iran-Mashhad City-

Gaff Boys stencils and Graffiti can be overseen here http://gaff.ir/

KLone Yourselves

2008-09-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

KLone is one of the pioneer startists in Israeeli borders since 2003 ,His talent is shown throw his expressive Art works ... check out the Talent at : http://www.flickr.com/photos/klone/

Elf In Tehran

2008-09-28T22:58:00.000-07:00

Information coming out from Tehran Again with ELF Band coming out from the Graff map of middleeast .streety style of this Crew is REally worthy to look and think of.

check thei Web for more simple but talking works http://elfgraffer.blogspot.com/

2nd Sticke Combo In Tehran

2008-07-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

Back to Middle East Street Art -kolahstudio -Our Independant Tehran Pole where more than 1000 Stickers Are Gathered from Street Artists Around the world to Change some city Surfaces with Cool images coming from the Heart and soul of some Talents around the world.
Worldwide Artists List up :
Noel2 - New Coloney - Too8pe - Surgen - Seventeenth - Asbestos - xamoosh - SurGen9 - Omino71- Uno- Me-love- DEStiny- Bisquit- Lunar 75- JACk- Gusto- Sammo- The GC Four - VR- Falto- schascha- Awol- Kozet- Mono- Christian Castanada- RML- Cocoyoi- Adgaroga- El Lasso- Curt- Mr.Stenc- Once More- Yo!- Lady B!- MyNameIsDelme- Muka the Cat- Drao39- Smurf- Keramik- Skero- Holy Sin- PerfektWorld- Busk

you can see more pix of This Sticker Combo by Downloading the burning PDf Magazine Brainstorm #9 From this URL http://www.kolahstudio.com/ksc/ in the bottom of The page.

It makes some hope to have more emerging young startists in Iran and mideast after Some events like this one.

2nd annual Inspiration art Exhibition

2008-03-02T08:33:00.000-08:00

Legal Action gallery in Telaviv Is holding up an international Exhibition of streetArtists in Gallery which is the new version of The last yer exhibition .Inspiration Art Exhibition in Planned by Idiotthewise.com and will be open from Thursday night 6th of march (8pm-1am)

The show will feature works of world aclaimed artists from France,USA ,uk ,italy ,Israeel,germany,iranand Southamerican region

MiddleEast graffiti is proud Of this!

2008-03-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

Fresh images from our Tehran pole-A1one .his Graffitis are going 3Ds.A1one is one of the pioneer StreetArtists in middleeast forming a style Based on Tehran and persian culture.

Seen in streets of lebanon

2008-02-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

StreetArt and Graffiti In Lebanon - Hamra and ....

And here is Arofish's Work in lebanon

see: http://lebgraffiti.blogspot.com/

GOO Interviews Boksmati / UAE

2008-02-10T07:31:00.000-08:00

GOO: What does Your name (Boxmati) Mean?
Boksmati: Well, Boksmati is simply my family name, which sometimes I write it with an "x". Every time I introduce myself to someone stating my name and family name, most of the people ask me to repeat my family name not because they didn't understand it but because it has a weird tune for an Arab if you know what I mean. In other words they become interested in knowing more about it and this is exactly what I try to achieve while creating a certain graphic. I want people to get involved when they look at one of my designs.

GOO:When did you first Started Graffiti In your city? What was your first piece?
Boksmati: I know that you might get a bit disappointed but I never did graffiti in my city or anywhere else. All the graffiti that you see on my blog are photoshoped. None of them are real. To me, graffiti is vandalism and this is against my religion. I might do it only on old walls, which are really hard to find in Canada or Dubai. Will I ever do it? Hopefully yes. I'm planning to go back to Lebanon this summer and I guess I can find a lot of old neglected walls there.

GOO:What was your inspiration to do StreetARt/Graffiti?
Boksmati:I guess my passion to Typography, which I consider to be the mother of all graphics, led me to experiment graffiti, which revolves on lettering.

GOO:Are there Any other StreetArt Workers ,there in UAE?
Boksmati:Yes, United Arab Emirates notable writers are Frez(Dubai) AMB(Abu Dhabi) Remo(Dubai) Sear((Sticker art)Dubai) and a member of the DS tag crew(Dubai)… there are few pieces and no large scale works at present, but most of the tags and throw ups put up are left unbuffed. I do think that those writers are doing it for the wrong reasons though. They are trying to get fame out of it and forgot all about technique, style and passion.

GOO:What is your main focus? Design or Graffiti?
Boksmati:I guess its both, since I am graphically designing graffiti (mixing vector style and graffiti writings) or I could be a digital graffiti artist but I think or pretty much hope that I'm the first to mix Arabic graffiti and graphic art on the web. All in all everything is revolved around lettering and typography.

GOO:How do you see the Youth In UAE?
Boksmati:I seriously can't comment on this question since it's my 9th month here in Dubai (was in Canada before) and I still don't have much interaction with them.

GOO:What materials you use For Graffiti?
Boksmati:Now I can say: Illustrator, Photoshop, Black Marker and a scanner :)

GOO:Do you know Something about Graffiti in the Middle-East region or even Arab countries?
Boksmati:Yes, I always try to find out more about what other artists are doing. But since you are doing all the hard work now, I guess I'll keep on checking out your blog from now on ;) You might be interested in some of my friends who are a Lebanese rap crew and graffiti artists and did some graffiti in Beirut. Mijrim Kaleim I'm sure he'll be pleased to send you some of their works.

GOO : Thanks for letting us know
Boksmati:Thanks again for everything. I've sent you some works that i've never posted before. Feel free to post them if you like.cheers and good luck

GOO Interviews A1one / IRAN

2008-02-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

GOO: What does Your name A1one Stand for?
Alone : My Name has Many meanings and Story. The main is the reallity of being Alone those times i started graffiti in the Middlea East 's Most important capital - Tehran. Being the first like "A" in alphabet and "1" in numbers and another "one" in Writting form.another thing is
If you want to read Alone in Aranic You can read - Al-one (Alvan) whichmeans Colors. In Islam the Religion of most middleEast residents ,One is the God's features. or Al one Means the Only One we all know him. Is this enough?of course yesss.

GOO: When did you first Started Graffiti In your City?what was your first piece?
Alone : The very first experiments with Spray belongs to th time i was a kid around 11 Years old .Next when i was 16 i bought the second can because i was in love.after that in 2003 I started it as illegal wall painting and with World wide web i tried to make it public whitin Iranian culture.... My First Piece !!! it was a A3 sized Munch's screem Stencil.... and at the same time some other at that size.

GOO: What was your inspiration to do StreetARt/Graffiti?
Alone : Passion to talk loud and hate to be silent when i need to shout.

GOO: Are there Any other StreetArt Workers ,there in Iran?
Alone : Yeah in 2006 and 2007 i wittnessed the currency of the Spray blooded cult in Tehran .If you want to say StreetART i may need to daubt about the YES .but in case you mean graffiti and taggin , yeah maybe about 20 or a bit more.even today it is going to other main
cities than Tehran.You can always check our Irangraffiti.blogspot for news from IRAN and Tehran.

GOO: How do you see the Youth In Iran?
Alone : youth? so many different types. if you mean Graffiti youth. yeah they are great and have passion to improve their skills and get over walls.most like to get into oldschool graffiti types.

GOO: What is your main focus? Design or Graffiti?

Alone : both . Graffiti is also design but the medium is different. i mean bigger and rough.I desing and work on Iranian(arabic letter)Type
forms and Fonts both for PC and Wallz. make indi products like Tshirts,Stickers and Posters ...

GOO: What materials you always use For Graffiti?
Alone : Spray cans ,Maybe Brush and wheatpaste.

GOO: Do you know Something about Graffiti in the Middle-East region or even Arab countries?
Alone : I have not heard about it and for sure there is not so much of it really yet. as i can think about The culture.I think Arabic culture is not so much comfortable with Modern Art Atmosphere.It's my personal opinion.Arabculture is more important in their music ,dance and
Poetry but haven't heard if they care for modern visual arts like cutting edge visual arts or graffiti.I know artists who are doing streetart in telaviv and haifa with passion and care and more to say Street ART actions.See Idiotthewise.com
and Klone's works.the Last Thing which is about graffiti in middleEast is Arofish -A UK based StreetArtist-who has Put his lifesize stencils in most middleeast Countries like IRAQ,Palestine, Lebanon and ... but not our country yet.

A1one's main Web http://www.kolahstudio.com/

Graffiti and Middle East

2008-02-02T23:38:00.000-08:00

Graffiti in the Middle East is slowly emerging, with pockets of taggers operating in the various 'Emirates' of the United Arab Emirates and mainly in Israel and Iran.
Most graffiti is painted in Israel, many crews of graffiti artists are active mainly in the Tel-Aviv and Haifa area. In IRAN the Urban art movement has just began and writers/taggers are down in the streets of Tehran and some other centeral cities of the region like Tabriz,Isfahan and Mashhad.

There are few pieces and little illegal large scale works at present (mainly in IRAN and ISRAEL), but most of the tags and throw ups put up are left unbuffed.
Graffiti is also coming out into the mainstream media, with the launch of a West Coast Customs branch in Dubai leading to a country wide talent search for artists to spray the inside of the new garage live at the launch show. Also The Iranian major Newspaper hamshahri published two artciles on Illegal writers in the city targetting photo coverage of A1one's works on Tehran walls.
In Dubai is also the largest mural in the world done by the Montana writer team in Dubai Festival City.
The separation wall being built by Israel in the West Bank has become a giant graffiti canvas, perhaps rivaling the former Berlin Wall in scale.
A graffiti artist with the name "PURE" has graffiti painted on almost every Arab country. Authorities say that he is a Palestinian-born living in Bethlehem.

whole Article is takebn from WikiPedia / Graffiti

Updates From Tehran

2007-12-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

A1one's style is distinctive reflective of Iranian culture and Also Typography, his stencils created from his own photographs and writings and he strives to experiment with different techniques and methods of visual resistance both on walls and canvases.

Congratz!

A1one Is Also The key figure of the Middle eastern Graffiti movement working since 2003 While The other source of StreetArt in middleeast has just emerged in Telaviv and haifa-Israel.

Thanks to Artist For sending some samples of His works for The MideastCollective see more of his works in http://tehanwalls.blogspot.com

United Arab Emirates Graphix: Boksmati

2007-08-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

Emirate Based Artist Bokxmati is a Graphic Designer and Graffiti Artist working in middle east .
We have just got to get informed about His blog which is established in 2006.

His works are So fresh with powerful digital Designs. See more works on
http://boksmati.blogspot.com/

PingMag Interviews A1one

2007-01-20T00:20:00.000-08:00

what do we really know about IRAN? And which of all these facts are actually true? What kind of image do we have? And would we include something like ‘Iranian Graffiti’ or ‘Street Art from Tehran’ in this image?

If so, what would that look like? Do we expect any strong Anti-American messages? Or do we think of a strong form of expression against the government maybe? Or could it be sympathizing with a local party? Or what if it was not about any official statement at all, but what if Iranian street art was simply a form of personal expression? Or maybe it is even all of the above, still testing out what ’street art’ could possibly be in this particular environment… PingMag interviewed A1one, the one who started graffiti in Tehran and Maybe Middle East:

http://www.pingmag.jp/2007/01/19/a1one-1st-generation-graffiti-in-iran

Graffiti for God!!!

2007-01-10T00:09:00.000-08:00

Artist Mohammed Ali has a very unique Stencil on canvas style - his inspiration is the Arabic script in the Holy Qur'an. He fuses the art forms, reflecting the energy of the urban Muslim living in the West

Stenciling often conjures up images of vandalism and urban decay. Mohammad Ali's art challenges these assumptions by taking graffiti from the walls to canvas. He fuses two very different artistic forms by drawing on his faith and the energy of the street to create a style that is uniquely western and Islamic.
"My fascination with graffiti goes back to the early days. I remember always doodling and sketching outlines. I couldn't connect with the depressing lives that 'great' artists lived. Studying Van Gogh's life wasn’t for me. I didn't want my art to drive me to that.
"I needed something real, real to me, something that was within reach. Aerosol paint was just what I needed. I could finally be the artist. It didn’t matter to me if the art teacher approved or not. I was doing my own thing. I would choose the colours and I drew what I felt."
Mohammed is from Kings Heath in Birmingham and at just 25 years of age he is keen to inspire kids in Birmingham. He found his religion while at university, and believes that mixing the street art of graffiti with religion is a more succesful way for young people to connect with their faith;

"Every youth has admiration for graffiti and can connect with it. It's a much more approachable artform - mix it with religion and you're giving people back their faith too.
Far from vandalising public property, Mohammed's graffiti-style art is done as individual pieces using spray paint on canvas.
"Back in the day if I'd have seen graffiti in Arabic I would have followed my faith more - it would have inspired me. It seemed like religion was for old folks, and I want to give it back to the kids."
"Going back to the Qur'an I was struck by the sublime beauty of the Arabic script. The very way the words were written was powerful and fluid mirroring the strength of the message and its transcendent significance. I wanted to paint again, but now my inspiration was the Arabic language."
"Like many young Muslims around me, I became drawn to Islam at University. Feeling that I had neglected something very beautiful for far too long. I considered using my art to reflect my faith. Islam too could be slick, stylish and charismatic. The colours and shapes could reflect the energy of the urban Muslim, living in the west."

Mohammed wants to expand his artwork to clothing, and feels the universal messages in his work such as 'peace' 'knowledge' and 'patience' will be a succesful crossover into youth culture.
He hopes his graffiti art work will serve as a bridge between Islam and the West and to encourage more young people to accept their faith through this new kind of Islamic art.
"I wanted to take an art form that belonged on the street and connect with ordinary people through the divine meaning contained in the book of Allah. be proud of your identity as a Muslim. Do it with confidence."

Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/