“In the Ruminate collection I wanted to create pieces of artwork that showcase the richness and depths of emotion in human life, encompassing a spectrum of emotion based themes I had in mind such as hope, suffering, isolation and empathy, using my medium of choice, graphite, which I use to produce striking hyper realistic artworks with honest photorealism in mind. As I was narrowing down to find my style of artwork and what I wanted to portray in this collection, the desire to cover themes depicting deep human emotions grew stronger, as I felt these topics give the viewers a sense of familiarity and can bring out deep thoughtful moments and a chance for the viewers to reflect on their own lives as well as on the lives of others. The use of striking lighting combined with the photographic edge of the figures in my artwork is something that I feel is a necessity in my work and pushes me to bring out the best of my realism while allowing me to portray an element of mysteriousness. With the dramatic angles in each artwork and the person modelling the reference images being unknown, the work not only shows an insight into the creative mind and vision of the artist, but more importantly gives the viewer an opportunity to reflect on their own lives as they resonate with the work in their own individual way.”

- Hamza Fiaz