Take a quick scroll through Rania Abulhasan’s Instagram account @3plus5dots, and you will relate to her art. It is simple, the lines are clean and there is an abstraction to it that does not erase meaning or message. We were getting strong Picasso vibes but with modern notes. Rania is a contemporary Kuwaiti artist and has created a beautiful portfolio presenting art and product design over the years.
As a child, art was always part of her life and by the time she had reached high school she knew she wanted to study her passion. “I knew Parsons would be the school I would go to. I worked hard to be able to qualify for it,” she explained. She moved to Paris and enrolled in Parsons in Paris but later on moved to New York to finish her degree at The New School at Parsons School of Art and Design. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts.
In 1999 Rania joined the big leagues and started working for LVMH as a designer. Her time there was invaluable, “I gained a lot of knowledge and experience. I learned to be resilient and organized with my work,” she said. Her constant and strong passion for fine art is the root of her inspiration but her external environment is another source of ideas. “I draw inspiration wherever I live. So Paris and New York are two of the cities that have influenced my work among many other cities I have lived in,” Rania told us.
She majored in Fashion Design, while continuing to explore her passion for design and Fine Arts: she attended a fine arts program at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and minored in Product Design at Parsons. From her educational years to all the different places she worked, Rania collaborated with many influential artists and designers in the world’s most forward thinking cities, and this has also helped her grow into the artist she is today. “I have had the opportunity to train and work under many artists and designers which I am grateful for. They have helped me with my craft and my artistic growth. I paint what I feel using color, shapes and technique to relay my message. My art and design are intertwined, they draw inspiration from one another. I am professionally a designer and a working artist,” she explained how her path was shaped by her experiences.
Art is a relationship between the artist and the viewer, and Rania compares it to a language or a conversation, she expresses feelings, emotions and a message and hopes that the viewer can interpret it when they view her art. She started publicly exhibiting in 1995, her first collection was a series of self-portraits, and she has been doing that ever since. Showing her work has helped her grow and evolve, yet it can be stressful. Over the years she has learned to be more relaxed and it is now a much more enjoyable process for her.
Not all of Rania’s work is related to fashion or art, in 2005 she created a concept line of home products, including small furniture pieces and home scents. Currently she is a partner at the Kuwaiti interior design firm Unschooled Designers.
Rania’s work shines a light on life and movement. Colors and shapes are expertly manipulated by her brush to start a story that you as a viewer can finish. Rania enjoys experimenting with different mediums. She often starts with a water-based medium and moves on to an oil finish based on the surface she is working on. Some of her art is done on paper, others on canvas and her most recent collection “THAWB” is painted on printed paper. The collection was inspired by traditional festive Kuwaiti attire, it is very modern yet respectful of Kuwait’s heritage and the past. “I like to create timeless pieces that can go on and evolve with time,” she explained. And that’s exactly what they feel like. Her work of her paintings feels instantly classic and enduring. And she has no favorites, “All the pieces that I work on are special to me. They start with an idea, emotion or just a visual inspiration and go from there,” she said.
We were mostly curious about her IG handle because it appeared to hold more meaning. “This has been my signature logo for as long as I remember, the inspiration behind 3+5 comes from my fascination with numbers. The number 8 which symbolizes eternity to me is where this comes from 3+5=8 and I used dots to draw the number eight as my personal symbol,” she elaborated. The eight little unassuming dots suddenly held a lot of weight, exactly like Rania’s art.
When we asked Rania what she would tell budding artists, she was clear and succinct, “Trust your instincts, believe in yourself, pursue your dreams, take your craft seriously, knowledge and experience are equally important and life is precious”. She values hard work and seriousness while also embracing the beauty of art and the precarity of life. She is a reflection of her work, simple on the outside but deep and layered the longer you engage with it.
UP CLOSE & PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE
What do you most value about your friends?
Their diversity.
Which living person do you most admire?
The people that are in my inner circle are people that I admire and respect.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Peace of mind.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Family.
What is your most treasured possession?
Love.
What is your greatest fear?
Loss.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Organization.
Which talent would you most like to have?
Flexibility.
What is one trait you have that you are most grateful for?
Consistency.
What is the human trait you most dislike about others?
Lack of humanity.
What is it that you most dislike?
Lack of order.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
Thank you.
What are your favorite words to live by?
Peace and harmony.
Where would you most like to live?
The Mediterranean.
If you could have any job, what would it be?
What I do.
What would you consider your greatest achievement?
My family.
What do you hope for the future?
A more united, peaceful world for our future generations.
Enjoy Rania’s art by following her on Instagram @3plus5dots and visiting her website raniaabulhasan.com.
