If you've walked down the streets of Albany lately you may have seen art on display in many of the windows. The work is part of The Downtown Albany Business Improvement District's “Winter Wonderland” public art project.
One of the artists chosen to have her work on display is Ranna Payamfar, a seventh-grader at Woodland Hill Montessori School in North Greenbush. She's not only the youngest to have her work featured in this installation, but the youngest individual artist ever to have her artistry on display through a BID-sponsored event (one of the Nipper dogs is painted by a local middle-school class).
"It feels pretty great," says Ranna. "I never knew my little scribbles from my childhood — to my evolved drawings — would one day reach a point where a drawing of mine is accepted in a professional competition."
The project, which runs through February, is a way to support both the local art and small business communities, says Georgette Steffens, the executive director of the BID. The thinking, she says, is that many restaurants and businesses are running on a thin margin with reduced staff. They don't necessarily have the funds or the people to decorate their store and restaurant fronts. This initiative spruced up the windows and gave artists a chance to display their work when many galleries and shows are shuttered.
Participants submitted everything from window paintings or lighting installations to three-dimensional storefront displays or temporary murals. In total, 14 pieces of work are dotted throughout downtown Albany. You can see a full list of where each exhibit is located here.
Like many artists, Ranna says she's always been interested in art. She recalls collecting her colored pencils, drawing the top of an active volcano and showing it to her mother with pride and delight.
"As I look at my old sketchbooks ... I see how my little volcanos turn into cats, which slowly turn into oddly shaped humans and animals," Ranna says. "I had an artistic period of really only a week of drawing people with every wrinkle I saw in their faces and giggling when I would show them to my parents. When I got my cat, Muffin, I had a phase of drawing her in all these silly positions. All of these little building blocks have built my artsy pyramid today."
While the work on display in the visitor's center at Discover Albany is one of Ranna's favorites, she's also especially proud of a piece she recently made at school: a hand is divided up into four color wheels and grayscale painted around it.
Another favorite is found in a rather unexpected place: Ranna's math book. She recounts drawing three alien-like figures coming out of a bundle of bristles.
"Each figure is one class in school with math trying to bite me, science just chilling with me and ELA coming to my rescue," Ranna says.
Ranna says her goals moving forward are mastering watercolor and trying not to doodle on her math homework.
The tween credits her art teacher Megan Stasi, who she calls "the best art teacher on earth," and her mother, Arzu Fallahi, for inspiring her.
"Sure Da Vinci and van Gogh were pretty good. So were Cassatt and Powers," Ranna says. "But my mother is beyond awesomeness and more than I could ever ask for."
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January 20, 2021 at 09:20PM
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Local student youngest artist featured at Albany exhibit - Albany Times Union
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