When you neither write calligraphy, nor make a drawing.
At a moment when the flame within you merges into the fires of the universe, an affair is created whose creator is unknown. You audaciously enter uncharted realms of art with which you have had no previous encounter. I am a loving man, born on the 11th part of 1st month of autumn of the 51st part of the 13th century of the Anno Hegirae. Gholhak, a neighbourhood in the Shemiranat County of Tehran, was my place of welcome into the chaos of the world.

I am no calligrapher or painter. I have never professionally practiced any of them and have never been interested to. As a man of autumn, I refuse to confine myself to any boring framework or rule. That is the reason I find little connection to the original and admirable Iranian calligraphy and line forms. Defying rules and structures in writing, drawing, speaking and anything that I live with makes me feel amazing and brings me better results. My late father was a brilliant writer and speaker and I sadly had inherited little of those virtues. I had a dreadful handwriting as a young adult. The gene however, was passed on to me and I was able to flourish the talent in me through interest and practice. I gradually started to write and draw better. With the guidance of the spirit of autumn in me, I created my own form of writing. Disturbed and melancholic, I first decided to write loudly in March 2017. And I did. I wrote loudly, I drew loudly and their loudness gave way to my inner outcry to manifest. Unaware that an inner being was emancipating itself through the turmoil inside me, my style of KHATASHY was born out of those loud writings and loud drawings. The being was freed a few months later, hence was born GADROONEH.

Shams Langaroudi’s “My heart is tinged with you” and “Lord, Seldom, a Glance” I wrote them aloud many times. Amidst the turmoil, I was confronted with a new creation. HEECH was crying out loud. My weakness in following traditional forms along with my strength in composition and drawing, gave birth to KHATASHY style. Now in March 2020, my outcries of KHATASHY style are collected in this book to allow myself and anyone who can appreciate, to savour and admire.


Alireza Malexadeh ( KHATASH )
March 2020