Sitting Down With: Rassouli

Written by Kerri Blackstone   

Fusionartist, Mystic Painter and Teacher

Gazing at any of Fusionartist Rassouli’s creative works provides a glimpse into the mystic loving eye with which he looks at the world. Rassouli has been a celebrated and innovative painter since childhood who later trained as an architect. Born in Isfahan, Iran, and currently living in Southern California, Rassouli has developed an artistic style known as Fusionart. He feels this art form is an expression of cosmic unity, a coming together of mysticism and artistic expression.

The development of Fusionart has been his entire life’s work, initiated in his childhood influenced by the historic and gorgeous home he grew up in, a mystic uncle and hours watching the whirling dervishes spin. Fusionart and his paintings blur the line between dream and reality – intentionally, since Rassouli sees the two as coexisting.

Rassouli is a prolific artist who has exhibited in solo and group shows worldwide. His work has appeared in and on the covers of a long list of publications and the Agape International Spiritual Center has showcased his paintings. Inspirations of the Heart is his most recent book; it contains a fusion of Rassouli’s evocative art with Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith’s meditative musings. Rassouli also creates murals in public space and one of his more recent, titled Angel of Unity, can be seen by people walking at the ocean end of Washington Avenue in Venice. The Angel, like many of the women Rassouli paints, is radiant, flowing, like the breath of the cosmos herself.

Understanding his view on life, love and painting may come best from his own words. He started his interview with Los Angeles  magazine by talking about his painting Eternal Sun.

Rassouli

Rassouli: Scientists were male so they call it the Big Bang. But what does Big Bang mean? Somebody hit something and a Big Bang happened? The truth is that it was a Big Birth. It was the divine feminine power that gave birth to the universe. We have the masculine power and we have the feminine power and they’re in complete balance. It’s just like darkness and light. They’re completely opposite of each other and they coexist. Life is the union of opposites.

Kerri Blackstone: Do problems and chaos come to be because the powers are out of balance?

Rassouli: Chaos and problems are judgments. The truth is the chaos, problems, potential – all of this is one. The union of opposites. Is a sunset beautiful? Is a sunset ugly? A sunset is a sunset. It’s the way we see it that makes it beautiful or ugly. If you were to be executed at sunset, the sunset would be ugly to you. Why does the sun shine? It doesn’t have any reason. We must accept that the darkness and the light co-exist. One cannot destroy each other.

KB: Sometimes it feels like we have an obligation to fight against the darkness. What do you say to people who feel that accepting something, maybe a bad thing, is the same as giving in to it?

R: There are two ways of fighting. One is to retaliate; the other is to prevent the attack. To prevent is absolutely necessary which means we have to become enough to face that opposition. If I’m mad at somebody because they destroyed something that I had, then I’m going to be attacking them out of retaliation. That is what is not right.

KB: By attacking out of retaliation, we’re just causing more hate and anger instead of trying to solve the problem?

R: Right. Instead I develop myself so that I’m able to face it. I’m working on a book that is about how we can become empowered through the opposition. I talk about the power of limits. We think limits limit us but it’s the limits that make an artist begin to express herself.

KB: When we’re given limits – creatively, financially or personally – they force us to become even more creative in order to get around them and reach our goals. Maybe those limits that seem like a bad thing, actually are helping us go further than we might have gone without them?

R: Exactly. It is the union of the two – the body and the soul. The spirit and the body have become one and that’s how we create. Imagine if existence were just gases – hydrogen, oxygen – it wouldn’t have any meaning. The union of these things together – the outside and the inside – gives it meaning, like a balloon. The air and the skin of the balloon together make the balloon. The air without the skin would expand to infinity. The skin without the air would be a piece of rubber that we usually bury six feet under. That air is the soul, infinite, no limits. The skin is the body that the soul goes into and gives it form.

KB: Do you believe the soul is eternal? Is it something that has always been there and then it comes into our bodies for a time to allow us to create in this form and then returns to being infinite?

R: Soul is the flow. Soul is energy. It has no identity, no personality. Imagine the soul is a river that’s flowing. Whatever’s inside that river isn’t aware of anything; it’s just in the flow. But then it comes into a little brook and it ends up somewhere, like a dead end. That part of the river that is inside the brook is us. That part of the river is not happy and it wants to join the flow. If it has big high rocks or mountains around it, it gets trapped and can’t get back to the river. If it doesn’t have any of these, then it finds its way back.

KB: What are the rocks and edges in our lives? Fears, doubts and limits we put on ourselves?

R: No, those rocks and edges are our culture, heritage, upbringing, education, what our mothers taught us from childhood, what teachers tell us, what society tells us, what our religion tells us, what everything tells us. The more we’ve learned, the more difficult it is for our spirit to get back to the flow.

KB: That makes it sound like learning is a bad thing that keeps us separated from our true nature.

R: Learning is not a bad thing or a good thing. Education is one thing, training is something else. Learning (or education) is to unify us. You and I read the same book, 30,000 people read the same book, three million people see the same movie or listen to the same lecture. That’s one side. On the other side, training is to individualize us.

KB: By training, do you mean doing what we need to do to prepare for our profession?

R: I mean doing what you love to do. Doing what you love to do has nothing to do with your education. You might love to cook or you might love to meditate. Developing yourself to do what you love, developing your deepest self – that’s the training. Education and training have to work together for us, for the individual.

KB: A lot of people today feel stuck inside a consumer lifestyle where we’re convinced we need to spend our lives working for the things that will supposedly make us happy. They follow that path but at the end of the day, there’s no meaning to it. How do we get away from that?

R: We have to accept it. Accepting it means bringing it into our life. We adjust ourselves to the night. We’re not saying night is bad or night is good. We accept it and we deal with it. I could yell and scream at night forever, “Why are you here? I’m going to destroy you! I’m going to blow you up!” I could do that but the truth is we have to live with night. This is not a matter of destroying day or night. It’s a matter of living with both. Yoga is finding a balance between my physical being and my spiritual being.

KB: Do you feel like you were born an artist or is it something that developed as you were going through your training and education?

R: First, let’s define artist. I don’t consider myself a painter. I am an artist. Art is a verb. Art is bringing the two together. Art is about union. So when you say ‘I’m art-ing’, that’s bringing the two hearts together.

Imagine a necklace of pearls. Each pearl has two holes for the string to go through. This pearl is called heart. If my pearl does not have a hole, the string is not going to go through it. The string that goes through these pearls is what we call love. Some call it God. Michael Beckwith calls it Agape, which is a Latin word for unconditional love.

Now if there is only one hole, the string is going to go in there and stop. There’s got to be another hole for that string to come out in order for the necklace to be formed – the union of the pearls – which is what I’m calling ‘heart-storming’. The medium that does that is God or love or Yoga – which are all the same.

KB: Are we all born with two holes in our pearl? If so, what causes one of both of these holes to get blocked along the way?

R: We’re all born with the two holes but very quickly we begin to lose the child within us. We begin to not use the holes so they get rusty and pretty soon, they close.

It’s the same as the blood that goes through the heart. The mystics call it the wine. That wine or blood goes into your heart, gets purified and comes back out. The same thing happens with love. We’ve got to put love into everything we do in order to experience that pure oneness, to develop that unity, to be part of that Yoga. Just like this magazine which is called Los Angeles Yoga: the union of the angels.

KB: Why do you think some people are able to realize that God is inside of them, when most spend their time searching for God in the external world or some other dimension?

R: Because I am a mystic, I know that God is inside of me. Whenever I need to ask something, I ask my heart, “What do I do next” and my heart tells me what to do. Nobody’s heart is ever wrong. Even when it seems to be going the wrong way, it is going the right way.

KB: How are we able to tell the difference between what our heart and what our rational mind is telling us based on what we’ve learned and been conditioned to believe?

R: The soul is on Earth to enjoy it. The tree is doing its treeing because it enjoys treeing. The roots are rooting, the branches are branching, the fruit is fruiting. They’re not thinking about anything but loving what they’re doing.

The tree is making love all the time – whether its winter or fall, it is still making love. ‘God-ing’ is what we call love. To ‘God’ means loving because that’s what God does – loves. We are created to enjoy every moment, to be the creator, to love. God has made us to be God. The whole idea for us is to love.

We have this rational mind for the protection of the body, that’s it. Without the rational mind, I might walk into the street and a car hits me, or I walk into a wall or I go outside in the winter and catch cold. My soul doesn’t need protection – my soul is connected with my heart. If my mind wants to decide for my heart, it’s going to be wrong. And if my heart wants to decide for my mind, it’s going to be wrong as well. The two have to work together.

On Sundays early in the morning, I climb the mountain in the dark, sit on the peak of the mountain and wait for the sun to come. I love walking in the dark because mystery is the essence of creativity. Without mystery there would not be artists or scientists – it’s the mystery that attracts us. I watch the transition from darkness to light, from cool to warm, from blues into yellows. I watch and I meditate. I am asking the Sun, my creator to wash away all the darkness inside me, whatever has captured me this last week. I go through my complete Yoga, knowing I’m being cleansed in the process. I have become one with everybody and everything – mountains, sea, sky. In that waiting for the beloved to appear, I experience true union. That is the unity that prayer brings to us; that Yoga brings to us. Then I come to my studio and begin to paint.

KB: Do you feel you’re still in a trance and/or meditative state when you come down from the mountain and start painting? How do you keep yourself into that state?

R: Oh yes. But it depends. Whenever I feel good, I paint and whenever I paint, I feel good. I don’t paint to make a painting. When I paint I’m dancing. And as I’m playing with paint, I begin to fly. I’m conscious, but I’m not aware of what I’m doing.

That’s the problem with people who use external means of getting high. When you’re using internal means of being high, it’s empowering, and the next morning you can build up on it. If I drink and get drunk, in those moments it feels good but next morning it’s a problem because I’m down again. If I get high from my inner being, the next morning I build up on it and get even higher. Every painting I do is in a different zone and at a different level than the one before. Everything keeps building up so I’m transforming constantly.This is how you can judge a work of an artist. Does the work come from a divine power or someone who is under an external influence?

KB: It’s fairly common for people, especially in the arts and music, to try to reach that trance state through the external influence of drugs and alcohol. How can they begin to find inspiration from an internal high instead?

R: Again, it’s the relationship of creation and destruction. The creative one puts things out there and the editor is the destroyer who takes things away. If the editor leads the way, you’re in trouble because it shuts off the process before it even starts. This happens with many artists, they start editing themselves before they begin to create. It took Brahms twenty-five years to compose his first symphony because he was comparing himself to Beethoven.

KB: How do we keep our editor on the sidelines until it’s his time to help?

R: Leila, creation and destruction, is going to take place at the same time. If you watch me paint, I’m creating at the canvas, and then I stand back and the editor can see, then I’m back at the canvas and painting. I’m in the trance state this whole time and the editor is well trained to do his job. It’s like when you’re driving. Your driver is your editor. You’re in your own world, putting lipstick on, talking on the phone, thinking about your day, but the driver is your editor. The editor knows how to handle things without hurting the creative being. Let’s say I take the pink brush and put some pink paint here, at the same time, I’m destroying the blue paint that was underneath. I am destroying and creating at the same time.

KB: When you’re in the trance, creating and editing a painting, do you have an idea or vision in your mind of what the end product will be?

R: Not at all. Actually, when I’m painting, a lot of times, I will turn the canvas upside down and work from that perspective and the painting becomes something totally different. I do this with students at my workshops and they see that what they were painting was an entire landscape that they didn’t even see.

KB: When you teach, how do you help people get themselves into the trance state so that their creative energy can start to flow?

R: It’s always different. Sometimes, I have them close their eyes, get close to the canvas and paint without looking at the canvass. I tell them, “If you open your eyes, your painting is finished.” Once it’s done, they can open your eyes and find out that it is completely different that it was in their mind. Now the editor starts comparing what you’ve done to what you had in mind and now the creator can stand with the editor and really see what is there.

I often see things that I didn’t know I had painted, they just come through. I’ll see for example the shape of an old man leaning over with a book in front of him and he seems to be writing on something. Now when my editor sees that, he can eliminate the parts that don’t belong to that, the parts around it, so that what came through me can really pop out. This is the process of creating.

KB: I read a quote you gave that said “I’m not painting something abstract, but something more real than what we see.” Do you mean that what we see is an illusion and, if so, is there any value in it?

R: Reality is only one manifestation of the truth. For example: a bird and flight. The bird is only a manifestation of flight. Flight never dies but the bird dies. Truth is immortal but reality is mortal. What I paint is the truth. Not the changing reality. What you see in my paintings is not abstraction. Abstraction is not dealing with the reality or the truth or anything. It is innocent painting – I’ll just paint and people will see whatever they want to see in it. It’s their thing and whatever they want to do with it is there business. That’s why painters who paint abstraction don’t usually title their paintings. My paintings are about the truth beyond the reality.

Many students and artists follow my school of teaching and we have retreats and workshops. It’s all about play and I get them in the zone to play. At the end everybody discusses their process so the others can benefit from it. It’s a safe zone for people to play and it’s a place of healing for everyone. No one is judging.

KB: Would you consider your workshops and retreats to be a form of art therapy?

R: With art therapy you are trying to open up the mind and here I am trying to open up the heart. I am a vehicle that allows people to take the journey of transformation. I explain that they’re doing the act of creativity which is ‘God-ing’. What do they have in the dictionary instead of ‘God-ing’? Love. You want to be giving love. That is the creative process. I gave them pastels and paper and told them to do the act of love-making with the paper and the chalk. I told them not to create anything like anything else. Create like God. Play like God. That’s how you can expand your love. And they got it.

KB: If you could share one piece of advice with people who want to follow their heart, what would it be?

R: Know that you are greater than even you think you are. You were the winner amongst infinite numbers of creatures in that drop of sperm. You were the messiah among millions.

So act upon it. Whatever you do, be the best at it. Rumi says, “Footprints lead you to the shore of the sea, from there on no trace remains.” Learn from others, so you can find a way to get to the shore of the sea. There you are on your own. Dive in. And experience that infinite sea.

Altar of Devotion By Rassouli

Soul's Journey By Rassouli

A Candid Interview with Artist Rassouli Written by Lauren Ashley Golt HOME Southern California is privy to an artist whom is both unique and inspiring. Using a skillful technique, known as Fusionart, Rassouli creates works of art that reflect spiritual experience by expressing images from his subconscious. Fusionart, a fusion of mysticism and European painting technology, is a style that Rassouli himself has created, registered and currently teaches. With smooth strokes, bright colors and a consistent theme of elegance, Rassouli, uses his creative talent to illustrate his spirituality. When asked what inspires him, Rassouli says, “Mystics such as Hafiz and Rumi, artists like Gustave Moreau, William Blake and Jean-Honore’ Fragonard. I do not start a painting with sketches, I do not paint on location and I do not work from photos. Instead, many mornings, before the dawn, I climb a mountain to its peak. There, sitting in solitude, I observe rising of the sun. I watch plants open their leaves, buds tear up their dresses and the birds sing to the arrival of their creator. There is an interconnected serenity that allows all creatures to experience the divine unity. Having felt that creative energy, I rush to my studio, dip my brush into paint, and let it move freely on canvas.” Born in Isfahan, Rassouli came to the United States at the age of 15 where he studied painting and architecture at the University of New Mexico. Now Rassouli has hundreds of solo and collective exhibits, including three murals in California, two in Los Angeles and one in Venice.  The mural in Venice, entitled “Angel of Unity,” is 120 feet wide by 45 feet high and is viewed daily by thousands of California residents and visitors. Rassouli, 65, not only uses his craft to express himself but he also teaches Fusionart at the University of Transformational Studies in Culver City, The Wheel of Wellbeing in Los Angeles and he holds monthly full day painting retreats at the Mayfair Hotel in downtown LA. Rita Roberts took his one of his classes and says, “Aside from being extremely talented, he is a fascinating individual.  I’ve taken one of his painting workshops and he actually teaches his students to allow spirit to paint through them and much to our amazement, when we do this, human images often appear in the paintings without you having deliberately painted them.  You really have to experience it!” Currently Rassouli is developing various programs to focus on bringing out the creative child within. He believes, “Once people realize how creative they are, they will begin to use that in their everyday life in order to bring them balance and more joy “. During the fall and winter, Rassouli will be working on a coffee-table book that features his artwork along with inspirational messages. He will also hold various art classes as well as full day and weekend painting retreats. Loves Embrace Save me from this sheltering slumber! Paint my spirit into the streaming colors of your Heart.   Let me flow from your brush like wine. Blend me with your hands, and let me mingle with your beloved Soul.   Create me from  the deepest treasures flowing in the currents of your  rivering secrets rushing to the sea.   Let me live in the rainbows of the visions hidden in the colors of your flashing eyes. Free Flight Love is a Wingless Flight of Freedom setting me adrift in a Sea with no Shore with no charts to help me find my Way through this pathless Wilderness. Yet, I can see  the Valleys of Forever as the Winds of Heaven carry me to the hidden Kingdom of my Beloved.    Online Videos Reflecting Rassouli's Art A selection from videos created or approved by Rassouli Click on the image to watch the video  A selection from other sites about Rassouli and his art Galleries Rassouli's Official Site Fusionart International Rassouli's Women Trigg Ison Gallery Nobull art Gallery Bait Muzna Gallery Rassouli on Facebook Pinterest Rassouli Goddesses Jerome C House Art Gallery Tender Dreams Tumblr Images LA.com Arts Art as Worship Dream Masters Fine Art Gallery Wikipedia on line Rassouli at Nobull Art Womankind Beauty Tebyan Art and Literature Payvand's Profile of Rassouli Through my Windows Circle of Goodwill The Artists Gallery Chelsea Inspirational Art Corner Ten Dreams Fine Art Galleries Women in Art Awakening Arts Five Golden Stars Gallery Rassouli: La Busqueda Photo Bucket Fusionart on My Space Videos and Films Note to God A painting Retreat with Rassouli Distant Mirrors Divine Light Visions of Rassouli Pablo Neruda and Rassouli Tears - Watch Rassouli Painting Bridging Heaven and Earth with Rassouli Birthing a New World A Feast for Eyes About Rassouli's Art A Riddle ( a Gift ) Mystic Painters Rassouli and Fusionartists Spiritual and Abstract Paintings Painting with Rassouli Metaphysical imagery Visionary art of Rassouli Art of Rassouli with poetry of Rumi Books and other Publications Pearls of Writ Renaissance of Divine Love Journey of Love Dream Oracle Cards Fusionart Book Jung: Journey of Transformation Journey of Love Oracle Cards Inspirations of the Heart Language of the Soul Yogy Times Los Angeles Daily News Rassouli, Rembrandt and Van Gogh An interview with LA Yoga magazine Press Media Wire Inner Traveler Rozaneh Magazine Nexus: Colorado's Holistic Journal The Meditation Society Sacred Catalog Pathways Within Templates for Outlook Express A Russian Magazine An Indian Magazine The Messenger Magazine Payvand Iran News Rachana Yoga Feminine Divine Cards Murals of Los Angeles Journal of Healing Artists' Directories Artists Link Encyclopedia.com Art and Literature Answers.com Symbolist Artists Persian Paintings International Art Gallery Netherlands Wikipedia.com LA.com A Gallery of Rassouli's Artwork The Cherry Muse Recent Interviews A Visionary Among us Interview on Rumi Revealed Awakeningzone Sitting Down with Rassouli The Master of Fusionartist Living Deeply A Television Interview Muscat Daily A Conversation with Rassouli An Interview on BBS Radio Interview on Visionary Culture Art from Subconscious Rachana Yoga of Rassouli Rassouli's painting approach Conversation with Caterina Ligato Omtimes Magazine Living Well Magazine New Connexion Technology of the Heart Rachana Yoga OM Times Artists Influenced by Rassouli Sandy Medearis Aazam Irilian Carole Burdick Diane Bulgatz Lily Nava Darlene Jaman Diane Atkins Yasmin Sayyedr Michelle Curiel Rickey Hoefnagel Bonnie Landau Ralph White Elizabeth Weber Josiane Cohanim Rassouli Copies Manzar Bebe Brookman Isabelle Ribuot Amber Goldhammer Vida Shajie Rezai Christian Parkes June Futamase Daytra Hansel Lorna Jeanine Paquin Stella Maris Jurado Roxane Cohanim Fereshteh Kakhsaz Roy Crawford Smith Blogs Rassouli, Rembrandt and VanGogh Los Angeles Art Gallery Art for the Soul The Mystery of Man Om Times A Celestial Journey with Rassouli Sadiq Alam Reza-Anima Ralph White Rickey's Blog Fusionart as an Artistic Style Sell your Cleverness The Wayshower Inspirational Art Corner Musetouch Magazine Poets inspired by Rassouli or inspired him Robert Augustus Masters Caterina Ligato Kay Elaine Ekwall Naomi Stone Divine Radiance Awake to Life City of Shambala All Poetry The Manifester brancoepreto I heard God Laughing Alexandra OneLight Rumi Hafiz Passionate Wanderer William Blake Ralph Waldo Emerson Omar Khayyam