You may hear about a person who doubled his professional major, shifted his career or, decided to take a different path than that he is certified for.
But it’s not every day when we find a pediatrician in the morning, and an artist, preparing for her gallery; in the second half.
We met with Nada Salah Amer, the founder of Sografitti, to have an in-depth talk about her career, passion for painting, and to finally ask her…in 2021, can we still have it all?
Tell us more about the real Nada, away from being a pediatrician or an artist?
If I try to speak about myself in a few words without mentioning my art or career I would just say that I’m an extremely simple person, who believes we are here in this world to give, to create, to ease each other’s lives, and add something to this world, but I am sure that it’s hard to recognize who I truly am without my profession…
My job and my art are a mirror to my soul, more than anything else. Simply because I have always made my choices based on my emotions. I chose to study medicine and specifically pediatrics specifically out of my love for children. As for art, it is part of who I am too, I draw what I feel and it makes me feel heard, seen, and understood. It makes me feel so alive, and you can personally feel like you know me so well if you just scroll through my art pieces.
“Songraffiti is a journey inside my mind that made me believe in the impossible and that one day, I can make a bigger difference in this world.”
How did you discover your passion for the arts?
My passion for art started when I was 6 years old, I remember that I wasn’t the type of girl who enjoy the activities of coloring but rather redrawing the drawing itself, and that’s where it all started. I wasn’t that good at creating my own pieces, but I thought of copying drawings I loved for fun, including comics magazines until came a day when Songraffiti came to life and my journey with arts officially started.
A doctor’s life is not an easy one, how do you balance between your career and your art?
It is extremely hard to balance, sometimes medicine takes over, other times the art control my schedule, yet I think I am that type of person who finds joy in challenges. I am very focused nowadays on trying to keep the balance between both, art is the fun side of the day, but most of my days are hectic so it takes a lot of effort to maintain the same frequency of creation along with my busy days at work.
Why did you choose graffiti art? How did you come up with the idea of merging songs and drawings?
The word graffiti usually stands for street art, but when I created my page I wanted to settle a name for this new type of art by merging music and art both in one word of my very own invention, that’s why I used the word “graffiti” as the common letter G between song and graffiti made it easier to create this name. The whole idea occurred to me when I was drawing and I got inspired by a few words in the lyrics of a song that was playing in the background that day, I posted the drawing once it was done with the song lyrics in the caption, and little did I know, this was the day when Songraffiti came to life.
How did your close social circle accept the idea of juggling two extremely different professions?
I don’t think everyone accepted that, but most of my circle did. I was lucky enough to get all the support to keep going in both fields despite the huge discrepancy between art and medicine. Some of my colleagues at work never knew I was the girl behind Songraffiti. When they knew, I got the best reaction you could ever hope for. I don’t like speaking about it especially at work. I love keeping my identity hidden when it comes to Songraffiti, because I want people to know Songraffiti and love it for its art concept not the person behind it.
“I am very grateful for all the people who supported me through this d path, I would have given up a long while ago if it wasn’t for them.”
Did your profession as a doctor plays a role in making your art distinct from others?
I am not sure if medicine complimented my ability to create when it comes to my art pieces, but I admit that medicine has changed a lot, “Medicine has a huge impact on my psychology hence on my art as well” and it has given me a deeper sense of life. One of the hardest things about being a doctor is all the negative feelings you have to deal with and absorb through your day at work. Your whole job revolves around comforting patients in their most vulnerable days, so I guess that I end up every week with a huge amount of negative feelings that I’ve been carrying around in the back of my mind. I end up not knowing where to go with all these negative feelings, so I pour them all into my art and I go get a fresh start of the week clean and positive once more.
Some people noticed the break you took from Songrafitti, did you think of stopping it?
Yes, unfortunately at some point last summer I was going through a lot of pressure at work that I haven’t been able to create or feel anything. I felt numb and sad, and I had that thought that maybe I will not be able to be two people in one person anymore. Maybe Songraffiti was a phase that had to end, but the week I spent with a deactivated page was a true nightmare. Songraffiti isn’t just a page to me, it represents all of my abilities. It shows all the moments I lived in the last 6 years, my tears lie within my art pieces and all of my happy days are there too.
And to be honest, the messages I received on both my private account and our mail encouraged me after a while to be back once again with a self-promise, “not give up on it even when it feels so hard to keep going.”
What is next with Songrafitti?
My next project is an illustrated poetry book with the very talented poet and author Fatima El Rify, the book will be available on Amazon to buy very soon. I am very excited to introduce myself to you all with a new experience as an illustrator, the book is all about the stages of love, it takes you through Fatima’s magical words and my illustrations into a world were love is explained, felt and understood. I hope that people won’t regret reading it, as for my long term plans we are working on getting the animated illustrations to extend more in the upcoming phase to introduce a new version of an animated Songraffiti.
We had a blast interviewing Nada, we love her work and we wanted to share her journey with you as well. Please visit Songrafetti and support her!
