After Pain, An Artist Emerges : 1st Show Comes Year After Start

Commanding an entire Westwood art gallery for a one-man show of 100 paintings is an accomplishment most young artists would covet.

For 23-year-old Shervin Firouzi, who first took up a paintbrush a little over a year ago, the feat is nothing short of astonishing.

It is astonishing not only because Firouzi is paralyzed from the neck down as a result of a diving accident two years ago and paints his vibrantly colored works with a brush in his teeth, but also because Firouzi never realized he had a shred of creative ability.

“Before my accident, I couldn’t even draw a circle,” he said.

Early Doubts

He began painting tentatively, encouraged by a recreational therapist at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he now lives. “I would see people who were so impressed,” Firouzi said. “I thought they were all joking.”

Any lingering doubts he may have had about the sincerity of his admirers were quelled by the sale of nine paintings last weekend at his first gallery show.

Firouzi let the buyers name their prices.

“I’ve never been into this before, and I didn’t even know what to charge,” he said.

Most of his canvases sold for about $300.

Firouzi’s paintings range in style from stark faces outlined in dark oils, reminiscent of German Expressionism, to more lilting and colorful surrealistic landscapes. He said Southwestern painter Georgia O’Keeffe and Pablo Picasso are the two artists who have influenced him the most.

Favorite Work

His favorite painting depicts a steel-gray volcano erupting with exotic red flowers rather than lava.

“It has a lot of meaning to me,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I see it as war and peace somehow. . . . There’s no other way I could say it; it’s so peaceful and at the same time, so violent.”

“His painting I think is beautiful, but it’s a little bit sad,” said Gita Sabti, who had heard about Firouzi on a cable television station directed to the Iranian community. Firouzi was born in Iran and came to the United States when he was 12.

Many of the 300 browsers and well-wishers who came to see the exhibit at the Heidari Gallery on Westwood Boulevard said they were drawn to the exhibit after hearing of Firouzi’s handicap and about his ability to paint in such an unconventional manner. But once there, some, like Sabti, said they were struck not so much by the technique as by the emotions expressed in his bold, abstract work.

Firouzi’s work indeed captures a complexity of moods and outlooks.

A recent work--a woman’s face with black geometric lines diagraming her features--was inspired by “an infatuation with a lady.”

“It really has to do with the mood I’m in,” Firouzi said. “I met a girl recently and all I feel is good stuff, so I just paint good colors.”

But there are black days, too.

“Sometimes, I’m in a lot of pain; I’m not having a good week, and you’re going to see that in the painting,” he said.

Holding a brush in his teeth for four to six hours daily strains his neck and causes him great pain afterward, he said.

“But it’s worth it,” he said. “I don’t really feel the pain till I’m done.” And he is quick to point out that he does not want people to pity him. “I feel sorry for myself sometimes, but I’m proving what I can do.”

Gaining Speed

Confined to a chin-operated wheelchair, when Firouzi began painting with a paintbrush clenched in his teeth, it took him about three months to complete an oil painting. Now he can finish a work in four hours.

A commanding presence, seemingly older and wiser than his 23 years, Firouzi sat amid his paintings Saturday and Sunday greeting nearly all who came to the exhibit. Though happy to sell his paintings, Firouzi was clearly touched most by the crowd of people who made the effort simply to look at his work.

“I’m not dying to sell them. I would like to, but if people can enjoy them, that’s the biggest gift for me,” he said.

And he is quietly confident that his art will find its audience. “I know I will be famous down the road sometime,” said the fashionably dressed, ponytailed Firouzi.

Bold Color

A painting titled “The Knife Sharpener,” which Firouzi painted last February, was the first to sell this weekend. Bold strokes of purple, orange, yellow, turquoise blue and black arranged in an abstract geometric style caught the eye of a buyer who came to see the exhibit.

After the show ended Sunday, Firouzi--who had been a manager of an Italian restaurant in Encino before his accident--was already making plans for his next exhibit at the same gallery next month. He is also toying with the thought of someday owning his own gallery.

Firouzi said he wouldn’t mind being regarded as “some sort of inspiration” to others with disabilities.

“The strength I get from my painting gives me strength,” he said. “I gain more and more from it every day.”