Haris Hashid

I'm left-handed.

The painting is a painting of my hand, which shows that I'm left-handed. Elsewhere in the world, there are still very strong cultural stigmas against left-handedness. In many Muslim parts of the world, in parts of Africa as well as in India, the left hand is considered the dirty hand and it is considered offensive to offer that hand to anyone, even to help. The discrimination against lefties dates back thousands of years in many cultures, including those of the West.
Despite these discrimination, it is still a blessing to be left handed and is how I maintain my life. The world is not just good or bad, it is far more complicated than that.

As a child, I was carefree and very imaginative, never really performing well at school. But my mind would always wander, later my parents found out that I had mild dyslexia. It meant I understood the world differently.

Art is the way I express myself, I was fortunate enough to grow up surrounded by creativity as my mother was an art teacher but I never thought that becoming an Artist would be my end goal. Growing up seeing my mother's friends whom were struggling artists, I knew well enough that I didn't want that for myself. But life works in mysterious ways.

In an attempt to pursue a creative "professional" field, I found myself reverting to painting and creating in my spare time. After graduating, I worked for a while in an office just to find myself trapped. Then I decided to take matters to my own hand and started selling my artworks. At 21 I got myself a solo exhibition, and from there on I was a full time fine artist.

I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. Never say never, anything is possible if you work hard enough.
Haris Hashid