An Interview With Visual Artist and FWOMP Member Shaheen Schmidt

Interviewed by Byron Merritt

Shaheen Schmidt is a visual artist with interests in multiple forms of expression. She works as a hair stylist when she’s not writing stories, creating amazingly beautiful pieces of graphic artwork, dancing, cooking, or . . . oh God she does just about everything! She’s also the only FWOMP member who’s married to another FWOMPer. But this hasn’t slowed or deterred either Shaheen or her husband, even though they have to critique each other’s work.

Shaheen’s background as an Iranian immigrant also adds another layer to her writings, and gives readers something new and unusual to contemplate.

We hope you enjoy this interview with a truly remarkable author.

FWOMP: Your background is a bit different from other FWOMP members. For instance, you immigrated from Iran. Can you tell us when and why you left your homeland?

Shaheen Schmidt: I moved to United States almost twenty years ago. It was after the revolution and I wanted to be with my brother and sister who were living here already, experience living in the land of the free.

FWOMP: You’ve got two new stories coming out in Monterey Shorts 2, and you seem to have found an interesting character. Can you tell us a bit about who she is and where you conjured her up from?

Shaheen: Donya, in Farsi means “The World” or “The Universe”. She is a sixty-year-old woman with a colorful personality. She comes from the exotic, ancient land of Iran and she wants to share her wisdom and love of nature with others. Parts of this character are myself and other parts are from strong women in my family.

FWOMP: You mentioned before writing these stories that you were concerned about offending the American reader, because of some of the perceptions that Donya has about the average U.S. citizen. Why were you worried about this, and have those concerns subsided?

Shaheen: I have experienced the act of prejudice toward me in the past by a group of well-educated and politically aware people. I was shocked by their quick judgments and their paranoia. I didn’t want to sound like them in my story. I just wanted to show a hint of human ignorance toward other cultures and backgrounds.

FWOMP: How long have you been writing stories?

Shaheen: Since grade school back in Iran. I didn’t grow up with the distraction of TV and computer games, so my imagination grew instead and I started to write short stories with my own drawings in them.

FWOMP: The job that pays you right now is being a hair stylist, and a little money from the first Monterey Shorts anthology. But what other arts are you interested in?

Shaheen: Video, film, visual arts and dance.

FWOMP: You and Mark Angel are the only married couple in FWOMP. Can you tell us the positive and negative aspects of being married to someone who also critiques your writing?

Shaheen: Honestly, there haven’t been any negative aspects. We are a great team. He mainly critiques me on the mechanical parts, such as grammar, and I critique him on the overall feelings of the story and the characters. If I do feel like he is putting too much of his voice in my story, when critiquing, I immediately change it back to my own voice.

FWOMP: You’ve done some beautiful artwork for one of your husband’s books, and few story art items for Monterey Shorts and Monterey Shorts 2. When you’re writing a story, can you see a piece of art (or a sketch) of the thing or people you’re writing about?

Shaheen: I always see my characters in a movie scene, with amazing music in the background. My creativity has gravitated more toward movement and arts with motions, instead of a frozen image in a frame.

FWOMP: What do you see lying ahead of yourself as an artist?

Shaheen: Getting involved in a large group of inspired people who are willing to open up to creativity by any possible communicative tool. We live in a time where Earth and human kind is in need of sending and receiving CLEAR, POSITIVE messages for healing. We’ll need both our left and right brain to come up with a solution for world peace.