The Woodlands’ own Farima Fooladi is remarkable in that she is a painter with the rare ability to combine existing and imagined personal memories with artistic and literary references. “I go for a run through a nature preserve close to home before I paint,” she says. She moved to Creekside in The Woodlands six years ago and is the mother of two. She is originally from Tehran.
In the new exhibit, “Nos Populi: We the People”, the featured artist creates complex installations that blur the distinction between fantasy and fact.
Womble Bond Dickinson’s office at 717 Texas Avenue in the Houston Skyline District offers a professional workplace for attorneys, patent agents, paralegals, legal assistants, and other legal industry professionals who help clients achieve their business goals. But through June 6, Womble Bond Dickinson’s Houston office also showcases a different type of outstanding work—the creativity of four local artists.
WBD has announced its Art & Diversity Initiative, a series of rotating art exhibitions organized to engage with local artists and create greater visibility. This exhibition reflects their interpretation of select themes during an annual two-part series. The theme for the inaugural exhibit is “Nos Populi: We the People.”
The new exhibit features works of art highlighting diverse cultures, perspectives, and identities of Houstonians. The exhibition brings together works of accomplished Houston artists Fooladi, John Bernhard, Luisa Duarte, and Nel Gaskin.
“We are honored to launch this innovative exhibition because we believe this exhibition reflects our commitment to D&I to and within the greater Houston community,” says Jeffrey Whittle, Managing Partner of the WBD Houston Office.
“We the People” is a celebration of the strength and beauty that can be found in our differences, and provides a reminder that, as a society, we are stronger when we are inclusive,”’ says WBD Patent Agent Azie Aziz Ph.D., the exhibit’s primary organizer. “Our Art & Diversity initiative is aimed to support visual artists, who are often society’s storytellers, to engage with the community. We would like to think these works to tell a story about Houston as well as represent the firm’s core value, which is “respect for the individual,” says
The art creates a personal touch and offers mindscapes that offer a chance to think creatively and wander somewhere we might never have imagined before.
“Art is a powerful tool for promoting understanding and inclusion,” says Kevin Hall, Chair of the firm’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. “Through creative expression from different traditions, art gives voice to the many varied experiences of our community.”
The other artists include John Bernhard, a Swiss-American artist, photographer, and writer who traveled North America extensively before settling in Houston in 1980. He has chosen the medium of photography to explore the everyday world from new perspectives, breaking away into different pathways of artistic expression. Luisa Duarte is an accomplished Venezuelan American multidisciplinary artist has a background in architecture, she has garnered widespread recognition for her distinctive and original artistic style, characterized by sharp-edged shapes that range from composed monotypes to vibrant paintings. Nel Gaskin is a visual artist who paints her pieces from pure imagination, combining emotion and a variety of expressions in the characters she creates.
