QL Exclusive: An interview with the artist, Abdulaziz Yousef Ahmed
Qatar Living speaks to Abdulaziz Yousef Ahmed, to know more about his journey as an artist.
Abdulaziz began his artistic career being a comic artist and became popular as one of the successful artists in fine arts locally.
He is known as Temsa7, which means crocodile in Arabic, and most people call him by this name.
The nickname Temsa7 comes from his name on social media. He says he chose this name because everyone used to call him Temsa7 when he was a kid.
“At the beginning when I first start painting. A lot of the artists that I used to work with, advised me not to share my real name in the publication of the newspapers, as we were not comfortable to show our identities as artists in the beginning of the art wave in Qatar,” Abdulaziz said.
He holds a double major Bachelor of Finance and Marketing degree and has previously worked with Al Jazeera Children as well.
Abdulaziz has also studied art in the US, and he studied different minors of art like the Islamic art, among others.
He had participated in many galleries and projects in Qatar, and one of those projects was The Koora Project in 2011. This project is a collaboration between 12 young artists and kids from seven different special needs centers. The project was organized by ROTA (Reach out to Asia).
“I remember the idea of the Koora Project, was about having a huge ball, where we as artists paint outside of it and the special needs kids paint inside of it,” he said.
Abdulaziz also had three personal galleries showcasing his art, Arabian Nights gallery, Escapism gallery, and process gallery.
He also got many prizes and awards for his short film Ya Hoota.
Throughout his journey, Abdulaziz has believed in his talent and never gave up.
“As I child I remember I never had the support in the school from my teacher, and he advised me to stop doing art because he believed that I cannot do it,” he said.
“I never stopped doing art, but my visit to the US changed my perspective, and I started learning how amazing the art movement there is, and that was the turning point for me to start holding on my talent,” he added.
By the time he got back from the US, Qatar was already seeing a very rich art scene.
“When I got back to Qatar, and saw the art movement, I felt that this is a chance for me to build myself here. So, I created a group of artists here in Qatar, where we all started to have our movement in art and by then I had many other chances,” he described.
There is no success without challenges. Abdulaziz faced tough times during his art journey, where he had a personal issue and he tried to isolate himself to focus on his projects.
“In December 2019, I remember that I announced officially that I stopped the comics and by that time I was preparing for my gallery process, which described my psychological state and what I had been through,” he said.
Despite all of the challenges that he faced, Abdulaziz believed that he could reach his dreams as he said, “I learned that what I believe in, it is worth it. I have been always hearing a voice inside me telling me that I can do it.”
Art was a way of expression for Abdulaziz, and for him art is therapeutic and offers relief because it takes all of his thoughts out of him.
“The pain that we face pushes us to create and to be creative, and the feelings it pushes us forward. For me, I am not really good in expressing myself in my talks, but my art was the weapon and the way to describe and express my feelings,” he mentioned.
Abdulaziz concluded with some advice to all the artists and the beginners by saying, “be yourself and never fake it until you make it, because you have to be real and to be yourself only.”
To know more about the artist Abdulaziz Yousef, you can check his page on Instagram @temsa7comics
Also, you can check his website at temsa7art.com
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