Artist Breakthrough Moments | In Conversation with Shiza Saqib
The VAA recently sat down with Shiza to discuss her journey into art, creative process and inspirations.
Shiza’s childhood was surrounded by creativity; her eye for detail was instilled in her from a young age by observing her mother and grandmother at work. Shiza recalls the wonder she felt witnessing their patience and precision as her mother and grandmother brought their ideas to life. Growing up, Shiza used creative outlets as a means to express herself. Shiza did not limit herself to visual art, in addition she explored writing poetry, painting dreamscapes and playing guitar.
Shiza shares the joy of making art by working with schools, universities, hospitals, and homeless youth, demonstrating to new artists that magic can be found by looking inward and connecting yourself with the canvas. For Shiza, it is about more than just art, it is about connection and community.
Shiza expressed gratitude towards her parents for their unwavering support and encouragement to pursue her passion. Shiza explained that in choosing to study Fine Art she broke away from convention/expectations, choosing fine art “meant trusting my instincts over convention, and it became one of the most liberating and defining decisions of my life”.
Shiza was overcome with gratitude and love to be named a Highly Commended Artist by The VAA at her first exhibition. Shiza expressed that “it was the first time I truly felt like I could call myself an artist’.
Keep up to date with Shiza’s work: @shizasaqib.studio
Honestly, I can’t pinpoint a single day when I suddenly decided, this is it – I want to become an artist. It was more like a gradual decision that was made because of the way my life unfolded, rather than a career path I had pre-determined.
Growing up, I always struggled with feeling truly present in my body and accepting it as it is. I lost touch with it for a while and ignored it for years. Healing practices such as yoga and meditation nudged me towards inhabiting it with more compassion. Along with that, creating meditative artworks became another way of listening to myself. The serenity of the colour blue, the use of repetition and the stillness of the process helped me come back home to my body. I gradually realised that art is not just a profession for me, but it is a way of being.
I know that I can live fully without being a lawyer, a psychologist, or an accountant. But I do not know a world where I can live fully without being an artist.
When did you realise that you wanted to be an artist – was there a person, place, or experience that has influenced your journey into art?
Your artwork explores themes of Spirituality, Mind, and Body Studies. What is your process for creating art, and where do you look for inspiration?
Most people think process is what you do when you sit down at the studio table, but it is actually everything you do before that. I cannot separate my creative process from my life. My art evolves as I do. It is born out of the questions, emotions, and transformations I am navigating at a given time. Grief, love, loss, joy, longing, hope – all find their way into my work.
At the core of my creative process is a journey into mindfulness, guided by influences from Sufi mysticism, intuitive movement, and yogic philosophy. These practices and philosophies carry a deep wisdom, and they have often sparked the initial seed of ideas that have grown into large-scale artworks. It could be a stanza from Rumi’s poetry, an epiphany during my yin yoga practice, or simply walking barefoot on the grass and having an embodied experience.
Strangely enough, I am someone who thrives on a packed schedule, always juggling a million things in a single day. My artistic process demands slowness and stillness. It does not come naturally and can be uncomfortable at times, but my strongest pieces have emerged from that tranquil space.
I rarely ever have a definite plan of what I want an artwork to look like. For me, that can become too restrictive, and it does not leave space for magic. Instead, I usually start by connecting a personal experience to a word in my mother tongue, Urdu. From there, I create loose preliminary sketches, letting an initial spark guide me, and spend time experimenting with different mediums and colours until the work begins to take on a life of its own. I allow the pen to guide my hand wherever it wants to go. My work is very detailed and precise, and so this ‘not knowing’ makes space for a sense of surrender and curiosity.
My pieces usually take a few months to make due to the intricacy and detail. In order to balance out the long bouts of stillness, I find myself drawn to the opposite extreme – movement. Running has become my way back into a rhythm, a kind of moving meditation. The sense of presence, the steady breath, and the building momentum all mirror what I experience in my art practice. This helps me tap into a flow state, which I carry with me into the studio.
What is your creative process like as a multi-disciplinary artist and how does an idea evolve into a final piece?
Since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art and the Iceland School of the Arts, you are pursuing graduate studies in Psychology at Columbia University. How do you combine art and psychology in your work? What advice would you give to art students and graduates who want to break into the industry?
My psychology degree at Columbia has been one of the most formative experiences in shaping both my artistic voice and the way I engage with my subject matter. Strangely enough, even though I was not directly studying art, my concentration in Spirituality, Mind, and Body Studies allowed me to explore my craft in a uniquely interdisciplinary way.
Through my research, I wove together Eastern healing modalities and Western psychological interventions, which sparked a deep interest in art therapy. I studied how different spiritual traditions and cultures approach practices of presence and healing, while also discovering a deep appreciation for positive psychology – an area that emphasises cultivating joy, meaning, and purpose as essential elements of human flourishing. These ideas have become the conceptual foundation of my art practice.
I would tell art students and graduates to focus on finding their own flow and rhythm. The art world can feel daunting and overwhelming at first, with so many different directions to pursue. I remember trying to do everything at once and ending up stretched too thin to give any one path my full attention. It is important to explore widely in the beginning, but eventually carve out a direction that feels true to you, and do not be afraid to let it change over time. You do not have to commit to just one thing, one style, one medium, or one gallery. Your practice can shift and grow as you do.
Present, in the here and now. Connected to their breath and body, but also to something bigger than themselves. Nature, music, the cosmos, a higher power – anything that makes them feel alive and whole. A state of wonder – open, curious, and in awe of life’s beauty and mystery.
What feelings or emotions do you aim to evoke in your audience? How do you want people to respond to your artwork?
Is there an artist or a piece of art that you refer to when you need refreshed inspiration?
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It’s not a painting or a traditional artwork, but I consider it a piece of art in its own way. The book is a creative companion that helps me return to the heart of why I make art in the first place. Whenever I feel stuck or disconnected from my practice, revisiting its exercises, like journaling prompts or artist dates, helps me quiet the inner critic. This allows me to reconnect with my creativity from a place of curiosity, play, and spontaneity.
Honestly, thinking about legacy feels daunting. I can count on my fingertips the artists who have left a truly global imprint, and I am not sure it is even useful to place myself in that frame. What I do hope, though, is that my work touches people.
I imagine it living beyond the walls of museums and galleries, flowing into healing spaces – spa resorts, wellness studios, and the homes of those who truly resonate with it. I hope it reminds people of their own spirituality, however they define it, and becomes a doorway to something larger than the tangible world.
If my work makes someone pause for a moment, take a breath, and feel just a bit more human, then I will know I have done what I set out to do.
Finally, looking ahead, what kind of legacy do you hope your work will leave — either in the art world or more personally?
See more of Shiza’s work: https://www.shizasaqib.com
Do you have your own breakthrough moments to share? We want to hear from you! Email hello@visual-artists.org for more about our Artist Profiling Service.
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Guest Written by Lola George Hammerton
University of Liverpool Student