Biography
Panteha Sanati Zaker

Born in 1970 in Teheran, Iran, Panteha left her country at the age of eleven. Along with her two younger sisters and mother she moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, then London, England and finally, when she turned sixteen, to the United States. Having lived through tumultuous wars, both in her country and her home, she always found a secluded place in art. No matter where she was or how bad the situation, she always found a piece of paper or cardboard and a pencil to write and draw.

Her mother's earliest memory of Panteha's artwork is a badly drawn, rectangular object with a squiggly line coming out the side. Trying to encourage four year old Panteha, she dared to ask what the object is supposed to be, and - disappointed - Panteha replies: It's a refrigerator. When asked about the squiggly line, the reply comes with surprise about so much ignorance: But, mom: that's the wire that goes to the wall! Panteha would like to call that piece "The Obscured Still Life".

Some of Panteha's own memories of early drawings include those of cherries. Big, juicy, red cherries, drawn on the back of every text book and notebook. Pretty soon, her classmates asked for an original in their own notebook, and Panteha quickly saw an opportunity to exchange the much sought-after cherries for aromatic erasers, high tech pencils, stickers and the occasional lollipop.

The most influential people to publicize Panteha's work were her mother, who, amongst other things, helped publish a pencil piece on the cover of Mid-East Reader magazine; her high-school art teacher, Mr. Wendell Montague, who found an acrylic piece in the classroom and submitted it to a city-wide fine arts competition; and a college professor who insisted that she exhibits her work at the San Diego Art Institute.

After having earned a Bachelor's Degree in Communication at San Diego State University and having worked in the confines of the corporate world, Panteha finds herself disappointed with the lack of opportunity to express herself. She now seeks the path of least resistance to colored pencils, watercolor and miniature objects to fit into her latest artistic impressions, the Three Dimensions, capturing her whimsical rendition of what she calls life.

Look out for Panteha signing many new pieces of art with her signature logo....