Meet this month’s emerging artist!

Name: Yousef Yahya
Age: 24
Occupation: Architect
Medium: Calligraphy
Instagram: UCFyahyart

Why do you art?
Art is something I enjoy doing, it relaxes me and it is my getaway when life gets hard.

How do you think up your concepts?
I get inspired by the phrase itself, there’s a saying that says “a writer chooses his script, but a calligrapher is chosen by the script.”

What is, in your opinion, the best thing you’ve ever created and why?
One of the closest artworks to my heart is the mural I did for an architect’s office that said “Beauty lies within the details.” I was assigned to provide an art piece of choice so I chose this particular phrase because architecture is built upon little details that assemble the complete final product, and that every little detail matters no matter how small these details are.

Then I chose to create this mural using string art: I placed over 1,400 nails to create a grid, then wrapped the thread around them to create the saying, so when you see this mural from far you read the sentence, but when you get closer, you see that beauty lies within the details.

Who are your role models?
It’s hard to choose just one, because a lot of artists have inspired me like the Turkish calligrapher Ali Toy, Wesam Shawkat, and many modern calligraphers such as Jamal Al Rabe’a.

What does being creative mean to you?
To see beauty where no one else sees it.

Favorite piece of artwork by someone else?
Artwork by the artist Naser Al Salem represented a verse from the Qur’an: “All things we have created in proportions and measure.”

Instagram: ucfyahya